A Wayward Quest
by TheLastTscheapwhetzar
Summary: Spike is excited that more people are joining his game of Ogres and Oubliettes. However, his storytelling and obvious self-insertion, mixed with a little railroading, lead to doubts among the party. After joining at the end of Ogres and Oubliettes, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are thinking of leaving. Spike sets out to reclaim with them with a new quest. One that changes everything.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Make it 20% Cooler

"I can only hold up this spell for so long!" Garbunkle shouted to the others. "Captain Wuzz, hit him with your arrows!"

"Already on it," Wuzz replied with ease, letting loose three arrows.

The feared Squizzard, who had just been beating down Garbunkle's shielding charm with his own powerful magic, was forced to break off his attack and dodge. Garbunkle seized the opportunity to retaliate and cast a disarming spell to deprive the villain of his wand. The Squizzard screamed with rage as his weapon said pathetically away.

"Get it! Don't let those good-doers get their hands on my wand!"

Dozens of undead warrior ponies converged on the spot where the wand fell. It was the perfect opportunity now. Rainbow Dash jumped into the mix and began bucking with all her might and speed. Empowered by Pinkie Pie's music, she left a rainbow in here wake, sending all of the skeletal figures flying.

Sir McBiggun charged down the road, spinning his broadsword overhead. The Squizzard was open. The octopod wizard began fleeing. His few remaining guards jumped in the way of McBiggun's assault. The imposing unicorn cut them all down without breaking his stride.

"Leaving the party so soon? We can't have that now!" Wuzz shouted, launching arrow after arrow. They landed in front of the Squizzard, blocking his path.

"Hey! I've got the wand," Rainbow Dash cried triumphantly, jumping into the air. The rogue threw the wand back onto the ground and snapped it with her hooves.

"Cruse you all!" the Squizzard wailed. "I will yet have my revenge for this day!"

"Give it up, Squizzard," Garbunkle said, trotting forward. "Today your reign of terror ends, and we rescue the beautiful princess Shmarity!"

"Not if my apprentice has anything to say about it," the Squizzard declared.

One of his tentacles held aloft a small bag. He tossed it to the ground and it broke open, releasing a steady stream of black smoke. The imposing smoke came between the heroes and their archnemesis. Out of the darkness stepped a light-purple pony, dressed in a swirling cloak of sable. Her eyes gleamed red and she tossed back her hood with a cackle of evil laughter. She was a unicorn.

"Gasp! It's totally Starlight Glimmer," Pinkie Pie squealed.

"Wrong! My name is Starfall Sunder," the new pony cried out in an overly dramatic voice.

"No, you're totally an earlier, evil version of our friend Starlight," Pinkie said happily. "What is she going to do next, Spike?"

"Uh…" Garbunkle said, put off balance by the way Pinkie Pie also broke the atmosphere with her metagaming.

"Like my master said," Starfall said with a powerful voice. "We will have our revenge for this day!"

Her horn gleamed with bright magic and both she and her master disappeared in a flash. Everypony blinked and found themselves sitting again around the table that served as both Twilight's map of Equestria and where the princess held conference with her friends. But tonight, it served as the meeting point for a rowdy game of Ogres and Oubliettes.

"Wait! That's it? We're not going straight to the Squizzard's castle and give Starfall Sunder a piece of our minds," Rainbow Dash complained.

"Well, that is as far as I have planned for this session," Spike admitted, having reverted back from wizard to young dragon.

"We have Discord! We could keep the game going for another three hours!"

"Just in time to start the next day," Pinkie Pie said happily, pointing out the window. It had gotten really late.

"All the more reason to end, I think," Spike said, glancing to BigMac, markedly missing his unicorn horn from the game.

"Yup!" the stallion said, looking tired. He was going to rue having stayed up so late.

Rainbow Dash began pouting as Discord chimed in, "I can always just rearrange the clocks. I'm pretty certain Celestia won't mind sleeping in one of these days."

Spike put his foot down. "No, we're going to end it here for tonight. It'll give me a chance to plan things out better and I think I can even get a guest player to join us!"

"Oh! Are you going to get Starlight to play next time?" Pinkie asked excitedly.

"Um, maybe," Spike said, flustered. "I-I still have to ask her. Wait, how did you figure out that I might ask Starlight to join us next time?"

"It's because you are super obvious with the names," Rainbow Dash said brazenly. The others started giving her shushing motions, but she didn't catch on until after she began saying, "Just look at the name of the princess in the game! It's quite clear it's supposed to be Rar-"

"Well, _WILL_ you look at the time! I had not realized it was _quite_ that late," Discord exclaimed, his arm now covered in watches all beeping and buzzing. A few even had coocoo birds popping out of them. "I have an important morning tea party with Fluttershy. And there is a new brand I simply have to get for her to try out! I'm afraid that we will have to call it a night, Garbunkle, but never fear, we eagerly await the next session and our next mission against the dastardly Squizzard!"

"Yup!" BigMac chimed in before giving a big yawn.

Rainbow Dash finally gave a big yawn herself and said, "Well, I guess at this point we're calling it. But Spike, I expect that the next session is at least 20% cooler! The first three times of beating up bad guys was fun and all, but the story is kinda lagging. When are we even going to rescue this beautiful princess that we keep hearing so much about? What about the rest of the wide world and the evils in it? We can't just be fighting the Squizzard the whole time, can we?"

The pegasus pony got up an flew from the room. She was closely followed by BigMac, while Discord opened a door in the air and walked through it, bidding everyone good night. There was a lot of trash left over from all the snacks they had consumed before the game. Spike got out of his seat and began gathering the leftovers to dispose of them. His body felt creaky after playing for so long.

"I hope you don't worry too much about what Rainbow Dash said," Pinkie said happily, bouncing around and gathering trash alongside the dragon. Half of the snacks were her mess anyway. "She just really, really likes her adventures! I think it might have something to do with wanting to be the hero and also reading so much Daring Do!"

"Do you think she'll quit the game if I don't do something about the pacing of the story? I'm not sure if we're ready to meet the princess yet. And I didn't want that to happen until we were fully prepared to take down the Squizzard. But if we take down the Squizzard soon, then what will we do for the story? I have been playing this one plot for so long I don't know what I'll do with myself!" Spike began panicking and took hold of Pinkie's main, dropping his garbage all over the floor.

"I haven't thought about any other stories!"

Pinkie just laughed and gave Spike a noogie. "You don't have to change the game for Dash's sake. She likes the game and will keep playing, so long as you make it at least 20% cooler."

"And if I can't?" Spike worried.

"Then she'll probably leave, and then I might go, because I wouldn't want to ruin Guys' Night, when it should be that when there is only one girl left, and you wouldn't then have to worry about holding up the story at all whenever we go on missions," Pinkie said all in one breath. "Let me get the rest of this stuff out of here! Good night!"

With a swish of her tail, Pinkie practically cleared the whole room before bouncing out.

Spike tried to not freak out.

Guys' Night was awesome and everything, but now that more of his friends wanted to play Ogres and Oubliettes, he didn't want the fun to stop so soon. If Rainbow Dash was beginning to lose interest, then what hope did he have of getting any of the others to play in a session? He had already tried inviting Rarity, hoping to have her take on the role of Princess Shmarity. Unfortunately, she had turned him down, saying that roleplaying games were not her, uh, _passe-temps_. So he had started playing the long game. He had a neat character planned in Starfall Sunder, and if he could convince Starlight to play at least one session, he was sure she would stick around, either as a reoccurring villain or a redeemed party member.

If he succeeded there, it was only a matter of time before Twilight finally got roped in and the rest of the gang followed. He could finally have Princess Shmarity make her big debut and they could defeat the Squizzard once and for all. The story would be complete, and he would be a hero!

But if Rainbow Dash left the game early…

He might as well kiss all those dreams goodbye!

Cleaning up the pieces to the game, Spike muttered under his breath, "Don't sweat it Spike, you just need to find a way to make the next session 20% cooler. It's not a big deal, right? Just plan for 20% more bad guys and everything should be great! Oh, who am I kidding? This is Rainbow Dash! She'll be expecting something akin to the adventures and mysteries of Daring Do! Pinkie was right…"

Once everything was cleaned up, Spike settled himself in to catch a few hours of rest before working with Twilight in the morning. But sleep did not come easy. How was he going to come up with a story that could up coolness factor of his campaign by at 20%?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Need a New Quest?

The next day was torturous for Spike. Not only was he exhausted, but he was totally empty on ideas for the next session. It was making him nervous. Unless the Friendship Map called the Twilight and the others on another quest, the next game was scheduled for a week away. He was already tempted to play sick and try to skip out. But then who knows what he would miss out on?!

Spike was determined to find a solution, but no matter how he racked his brain, he was plum out of new story threads.

An opportunity did present itself, though. Two days later, Twilight was called to Canterlot to meet with Celestia. There was another party on the horizon, and the princesses were all gathering to talk details. Spike knew of a few shops that he could drop by to find the newest editions of the Ogres and Oubliettes player guides. There should be something there he could use!

"Okay, Spike, just quickly go to the bookstores. You know what you're looking for," he told himself as he sped along the road. He had managed to slip away when Twilight was having lunch with the other princesses, no need to take notes. "Just get the book and then you can slip back in for some tasty gems!"

His stomach protested his break from eating, but it was now or never. Or so he felt.

Speeding along, he passed the magical bookstore where he had foolishly once purchased an enchanted comic book. And again, he foolishly glanced at the window to see what they had in stock, even though he had sworn not to go shopping there again. But there he saw it: a limited-edition Ogres and Oubliettes Game Master Guide!

Spike stopped in his tracks and stumbled towards the glass. He felt mesmerized, drawn towards its glossy and felt bound cover. Black and crimson lettering with epic depictions of ponies battling a multi-headed ogre and eldritch fiends filled his eyes. And this book even came with a free bag of items to be used in a game!

He exclaimed to himself, "It's perfect!"

Totally disregarding his previous thoughts and promises to never go back to the enchanted bookstore, Spike walked right on in. The place was packed more than it had ben before. Half a dozen stunning mares crowded an arrogant looking stallion with a baseball bat for his cutie mark. He was locked behind the counter with all of them talking to him and Spike was unable to ask for his help to get the book.

He quickly checked around the store for another associate and found a dumpier pony watching the show at the front desk, jealousy burning in his eyes as he stuffed his mouth with chips. His cutie mark was an open bag of off-brand chips. Spike grimaced but asked for help.

"Excuse me? Can you please help me get the book from the front window? The limited editions game master's guide, I'd like to buy it."

"Yeah, yeah, that's nice kid. Go away," the pony said.

"Why, are you busy at the moment?"

"Obviously."

"Fine, I'll go get it myself."

Spike had to inch around the mares and clambered up into the display window to get the book, but his tail knocked over some of the other items.

"Watch out!" some other pony called out.

Toppling books stopped in midair as a magical, purple aura surrounded them. They shakily moved themselves back into place. A freckled unicorn with a long mane and a no-nonsense look sauntered up giving a Spike a scathing look.

"Sorry," he quickly apologized. "I wasn't able to get any help, so I had to get the book myself!"

He held up the guide and the sack that came with it. The unicorn rolled her eyes and then directed her scathing gaze onto her two coworkers.

"Jock-Steve, you're supposed to be helping the customers, not flirting with them!"

The six mares turned back to her with arched eyebrows as the clerk stuttered, "N-No, they w-were looking for copies of that new series that just came out. Y-You k-know, the one where the one stallion has to join a secret society of shadow hunters to help his sister who is slowing becoming one of Midnight Moon's evil emissaries?"

"Yes, that was the one!" one of the six ponies added quickly

"I just caught up with the show, it's so great! I can't wait to read on!"

"Yes, read," a third pony said, starring at Jock-Steve.

The unicorn sighed and gestured with her hoof, "All of our imported stuff from Akibridlera is in the corner, as the sign above me clearly states."

"Oh," the six ponies and clerk said together.

"And you, Salty Hooves, don't think I haven't seen you slacking off over there! Help these customers find their comics!"

"Help… The customers?" the dump pony said, his eyes growing wide with excitement.

"Thanks, we can find our own way over," one pony said dismissively.

Spike watched as only two went into the corner to get their comics, shadowed closely by Salty Hooves. The other four walked straight out of the shop. Jack-Steve watched them go sadly, but he sighed and asked Spike if that was all he was going to purchase. The dragon happily handed over the book and sack.

"Thanks for your help," he said to the unicorn.

"Don't mention it. I should be thanking you for helping get these lazy lunks get back to work," she smiled. "By the way, I'm Shocking Robin."

"Spike, pleasure to meet you," Spike replied, shaking claw and hoof with Robin.

"Hey Spike, just to let you know, we only got this in recently," Jock-Steve chimed in. "It came with a warning from the boss that we haven't fully checked out the contents in the bag, but the note from the distributor said it would make us a ton of money and be a lot of fun, so we put it up front. I guess, play at your own risk?"

For a second, Spike felt a sense of trepidation. He knew from firsthand experience what could happen when messing around with a magical book. But he did need something new for his campaign. Plus, they had Discord around, so what was the worst that could happen?

"Then we let him check things out here," Robin said. "It's chill, no big deal."

"Thanks again," Spike said hurriedly.

He opened the sack and emptied it. Four figurines and talismans fell onto the floor, along with a map. Each talisman had a marking that Spike did not recognize, but he did know what the four figurines were: a hydra, a chimera, a cockatrice, and a powerful windigo. The map detailed four different castles but did not give their exact location.

"That's cool," Shocking Robin said. "It looks like this is an expansion for whatever game you might already be playing. If you're running out of ideas, you can place these anywhere you want into your already pre-established game!"

"Seriously!? That is awesome!"

"Yeah, I have no idea how you figured that," Jock-Steve said.

"Just ring him up. I have to deal with Salty Hooves. Looks like he's getting all weird again."

The clerk rang up Spike for a few bits and once the dragon had collected everything, he was out the door and speeding back for the castle.

Back in Ponyville, Spike poured over the guide's contents. He found all kinds of cool side quests and new storylines that he could play out with his friends. But he kept coming back to the opener, a story about four powerful beings that ran amok unless their talismans of power were collected and used against them. Spike thought about it, and how this story could play into what he had already planned.

It was possible that Starfall Sunder and the Squizzard would unleash these powerful monsters as retribution for their earlier defeat. It would keep the heroes busy while the Squizzard and his apprentice made a new, more powerful wand! And they could harry the heroes along their way.

Looking at the monsters' stats, Spike knew that these would be the kind of creatures that would give Rainbow Dash a run for her bits. Not only were there new monsters to fight, but their castles came with puzzles to solve and ne treasures to accumulate. Spike also thought about incorporating other elements from the guide's other quests.

Secret assassins.

Devious deities.

Doorways to other worlds.

The possibilities were endless! Spike was already over whatever misgivings he might have had earlier. he just needed to make sure that his larger plan could still work. That meant it was time to rope Starlight Glimmer into playing Ogres and Oubliettes!

It was easy to find the one-time villain. She was studying friendship lessons from Twilight in her own room inside the Castle of Friendship. For all intents and purposes, she and Spike might as well have been roommates. He knocked and she called for him to enter. Books, quills and paper were flying all over the place. The normally composed and organized Starlight seemed a little frazzled.

"Uh, did I come at a bad time?" Spike asked.

"What? This? No. No! Please, come on in Spike," Starlight said distractedly. "Take a seat. What's up?"

"What does Twilight have you working on now?"

"Oh, nothing big, just an essay with cross references to how spending quality time with friends is essential for building lasting relationships. I have to emphasize overcoming the distances that happen as time goes on and relate that to personal experiences. And well…"

"Twilight going overboard again," Spike sighed.

"Yes. I would talk to her about it, but she's been getting busy with the upcoming festival and ball."

Spike suddenly realized that his friends might be too busy to play a long story of Ogres and Oubliettes. He could reasonably put that off, but who knew what else might happen after that? His long game could be crippled by unseen missions and happenings if he did not take his shot right now.

"Yeah, she's going to be pretty busy. And speaking of that, how would you like to take a break and play a round or two of Ogres and Oubliettes with me and the others?" Spike offered.

"Sorry Spike, but that really isn't my kind of game," Starlight began saying.

"Oh please, Starlight! It's going to be a lot of fun. Besides, if Twilight is having you write an essay about quality time, there aren't many better opportunities for that outside of a good game of Ogres and Oubliettes!"

"I can think of more than a few," Starlight muttered.

"If it's all the dice rolling and character building, don't worry about it! I already have a character you can use, and with Discord's magic we don't have to rely on the math part so much anymore. We just have a fun time questing!"

Starlight waivered. She looked between Spike and all the work she had to do. He could see the gears in her mind spinning.

She sighed and said, "Fine. I'll try out one game. Just one."

"That's what they all say," Spike teased.

"I'm giving it a go for my essay, but we are also friends. I don't see the harm in one game. Just don't expect me to become a regular player. Unlike Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, I don't think I have the time for a steady commitment to that kind of game. So, what is this character you have planned for me?"

Spike beamed up at her and reach behind his back for the character sheet he had made just for her. So far so good, his plan was working perfectly!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Gazer

The next session came way sooner than normal; Spike was anxious to get started and head off any potential distractions. And the sooner he roped in Starlight Glimmer and gained another returning player, the sooner he could work on bringing in Twilight and the others.

Big Mac showed up first, bringing steaming apple pies in his saddlebags. Discord arrived with his usual fanfare of weirdness, this time involving a storm and some spiky creatures on pogo sticks but was disappointed when he saw that it was only Spike and Big Mac.

"What's the use of going through all the trouble of wrangling wild Pogo-Porcupines when there's only you two to see it?" he complained.

"I don't see any reason whatsoever," Spike said distractedly, pulling quills from his guidebook. The wild creatures had spready quills everywhere.

"Yup!"

"Then what am I ever going to do with all of these?" Discord sighed, snapping his fingers. The quills all flew into his mismatched hands as he began weaving a basket. The basket soon filled with chocolate filled raisins. "You know that Twilight and Fluttershy helped me see the proverbial light, but the real key to reformation is knowing where to indulge in a few things are still, um, bad. Chocolate and raisins together? Such delightful chaos and trickery!"

Spike personally didn't mind too much and helped himself to a clawful while Big Mac arranged the pies on the table. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie entered together, the later bringing yet more leftover cupcakes.

"How you don't eat all of those in transit over here is simply beyond me," Discord drawled.

"You should see what she does manage to eat," Rainbow Dash replied.

"I can't help it," Pinkie giggled. "It's just a good thing that we make sooooo many of them during the day! There's just enough to share!"

"We might have to space these sessions out more, or I am going to have put in extra hours for the Wonderbolts to work off the weight," Dash complained.

"I don't think you'll want to cut back on sessions after tonight," Spike said, trying to sound as if he had a great surprise in store for them. "I think I have succeeded in making the campaign 20% cooler at the very least."

Rainbow Dash gave him a skeptical look, but before she could say anything, Pinkie Pie cut in. "Is there any reason why Starlight is waiting outside all shivering and sweaty? Is she coming down with something?"

Spike laughed nervously. "Not that I know. She should be alright for tonight!"

"Why are you shouting?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, ha, no reason…"

Spike had told Starlight to wait in the wings until it was time for her big entrance. He wanted her arrival to the game to be a surprise to everyone. She would wait, listening at the door for when they attacked the Squizzard's palace later. She would enter and take on the role of Starfall Sunder and the game would proceed accordingly. He had already gone over Starlight's character earlier and explained the rules of the game. He left it up to her if she wanted to be a redeemable villain or completely side with the Squizzard.

He remembered with a shade of embarrassment her response to their discussion. "Couldn't you find someone else with a sorted past who want to play? Why am I always chosen for these types of characters in storytelling?"

"Well, Discord is already playing as Captain Wuzz."

"What now?"

Spike coughed into his claw and swept the memory aside. At least she was there and ready to play with them. Now it was time to set the ambiance and get tonight's game rolling! He told everyone to take their places. Some more cupcakes, chocolate raisins and pie was consumed before Spike began with the introduction.

"Alright, everyone, and especially you Discord, pay close attention," he said with dramatic flair. "You find yourselves traveling the highway to the Squizzard's fortress. After having bested him in battle and taking his wand, he fled with his apprentice, the dreaded Starfall Sunder! You fear that they are brewing some kind of terrible revenge and so you proceed carefully down the road as the castle's dreaded spires rise in the near distance."

"Alright! This is the kind of action I am here for!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Let's get going!"

"But horrors await you inside the Squizzard's palace?" Spike said, giving a dark laugh as he placed the guidebook's bag on the table. "Proceed with caution and find out, intrepid adventurers!"

Discord snapped his fingers and with flash and a _poof_ the gang was thrown right back into their shared world of adventure. Back in their gear, they gave a quick cheer and pressed forward down the road. Just as Spike had described, jagged towers rose in the distance like darkened skeletal fingers clawing over the horizon.

"I can't wait to have a rematch with Starfall! She's going down in ten seconds flat!" Dash bragged.

Spike kept silent, knowing what fun traps were up ahead. The pegasus encouraged the rest of the gang forward along the road flanked with dice and trees. A few warriors tried springing a surprise attack. They were quickly dealt with. Pinkie Pie played her music, whipping out her entire band in one and emboldening the rest of the party. Wuzz sniped the warriors in the distance while McBigguns and Dash trashed the nearby foes. Garbunkle wrapped everything up with a neat spell.

He was happy to see that Rainbow Dash hadn't complained by taking on small fry so soon into the sessions. She was eager to get into the castle and deal with the big bads. The rest of the party had to sprint in order to keep up with the rogue.

Climbing some nearby hills, the party came within sight of the Squizzard's castle. A charred bridge led to the yawning gates. In one of the towers there was an ominous flash of light. Two ogres waited on the party's side of the bridge, wielding spiked clubs. Reinforcements were marching across the bridge to support the bulky guards.

"Alright! This is what I was asking for Spike! This is going to be a nice warmup for the real battle," Dash cheered.

"Remember, it's Garbunkle in the game!"

"Yeah, whatever!"

Pinkie Pie gasped, "Rainbow Dash, you gotta be careful! Those are Bronze Ogres. Their intelligence is higher than most trolls, +3 to be exact! And they can use minor spells to cancel out special moves! They also have strength comparable to Green Ogres, and it looks like their weapons will deal extra damage if they connect."

Everypony turned to her with amazed and confused expressions.

"When did you become an egghead?"

"It's surprisingly easy to mix up the player and monster manuals with cookbooks," Pinkie squeaked.

"Yup."

"Well, if they're intelligent ogres, we will need a plan," Wuzz said, flexing his bow. "Dash, you should fly over and clear the bridge! Garbunkle, can you levitate Sir McBigguns over as well so he can provide support. It should make the ogres split. Trip up the one that chases him while Pinkie and I deal with the second."

"Complicated, but it works," Garbunkle said, using his staff to fly McBigguns after Rainbow Dash. The two ponies soared over the ogres, who swatted at them with their spiked clubs. True to Wuzz's words, one of them broke off to engage the rogue and knight from behind. Garbunkle froze the ground under the ogre's feet, causing him to slip and slide right past the bridge. He went airborne and dropped out of sight.

"Boo-yeah!"

"Take that! Ha!"

With hoof and sword, Rainbow Dash and Sir McBigguns destroyed the oncoming reinforcements. But Garbunkle saw that they would soon be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The Squizzard wasn't going to let them enter his inner sanctum so easily. The wizard was about to cast a spell to assist when a beam of energy erupted from one of the towers. Garbunkle was forced to conjure a shield to protect himself.

Meanwhile, Captain Wuzz used his bow to great effect by shooting his arrows not at the ogre's stumpy fingers, but between them. The bronze brute spread its grip and charged. Pinkie played her emboldening music again and Discord danced out of range. He kept shoot his arrows between the ogre's fingers until the creature loosened its grip so much that the club went flying out of its grasp with a big swing.

"It's disarmed!"

"Let me play a little tune and see how this ogre likes it," Pinkie shouted, switching up her song. The ogre began dancing a funky jig uncontrollably.

"Discord! I need a little help here!" Garbunkle called. His shield was about shatter under the force of this magic beam.

Captain Wuzz knocked and arrow and took aim. The dart flew swift and sure, reaching the window from which the attack came. Both were uncertain if it connected with the intended target, but it still had the desired effect. The attack broke off.

Pinkie Pie giggled fiercely nearby, having gotten the ogre to dance close to the edge. She gave it a soft tap with her hoof and sent it teetering to meet its companion below. They had managed to clear the main guards without a prolonged fight. Garbunkle let out a whoop and cast a wind spell to push back the onslaught of undead warriors rushing from the castle gates.

As they clumped together, Rainbow Dash and McBigguns charged, two bowling balls heading for a perfect strike. Undead warriors went flying in all directions. But before they could reach the threshold, the portcullis fell with a crash, cutting off their entrance.

"No problem," Dash said confidently.

She flew up to the ramparts and bucked two more undead, this time archers, and they went screaming to join the ogres. From her pack she then produced a length of rope and tied it to a convenient machicolation and lowered it to the rest of the party. She held her ground as they made their way up.

"CURSE YOU HEROES!" the Squizzard bellowed from above. "How dare you defile my castle!"

"It looks already defiled enough! You should hire somepony to come and clean this place up," Pinkie Pie shouted back.

"AAAARRRRGGGG!"

"Well, he knows we're here, but there's no stopping us now! Where to next Spike? Er, I mean Garbunkle."

"We'll want to get down into the main hall. There should be staircases that we can use to get up to the higher towers. That beam came from the middle tower, so I think we should take the middle staircase."

"Unless it's a trap," McBigguns suggested.

Rainbow Dash clomped her hooves together. "Then we spring it!"

"Or it could be a puzzle," Wuzz supplied. "In any case, we shouldn't let our guard down. I do believe this what they call a boss fight. There are bound to be surprises that we weren't expecting."

The little dragon smiled under his beard and mustache. There were definitely some surprises in store. And at the rate they were going, Starlight would be joining the game soon! Everything was coming together at last!

They hurried down the stairs and made their way through a courtyard to the palace proper. They bashed down a heavy set of wooden doors and entered the main hall. Ahead of them rose five different staircases. In each corner of the room rose a high, empty pedestal. Garbunkle instantly picked up on them because Spike had not planned for anything like this in his preparations.

"Alright, aim straight for the center stairway," the wizard cried.

"Follow me!" Dash declared, streaking straight for them.

The stairs suddenly folded in and became a slide. It didn't bother much because she could fly over them, but Dash suddenly pulled up right in midair and fell slowly onto the slide. She didn't say a word. The rest of the party pulled up short, stunned.

"That's unexpected," Garbunkle stuttered.

"Why's that?" Discord asked.

"Well-"

"The mage is confused because the game is suddenly going against his design," a harsh voice laughed overhead.

The remaining four bent backwards and looked up at the speaker levitating directly overhead. It was a like an orb made of flesh with a singular, massive eye in the middle and a wide mouth underneath with jagged teeth. From its bulbous and somewhat warty body, the creature had many tentacles whipping in the air. Each ended with a strange eye of a different color and pupil type.

One of those eyes was fixed right on Rainbow Dash. Garbunkle discerned a faint beam of light coming from the eye. He knew this creature well, but Pinkie Pie beat him to the punch.

"Gasp! It's a Gazer! A top tier monster with maxed out intelligent and wisdom stats, making it one of the greatest magic users in all of Ogres and Oubliettes! Each eye can cast a different spell. He's got ten extra eyes, which means he has ten super, ultra-unfair, overpowered spells! One of them must be _Cease_ which he's used on Rainbow Dash!"

"I see this pony knows her monster manuals," the Gazer laughed again. "My, my, that was an impressive display of force getting in. But I am afraid that the game has to end here!"

"Not if I can help it," Wuzz shouted, pulling back an arrow to shoot.

One of the Gazer's eyes whipped around to glare back at him. The archer began turning to stone right before their very eyes.

"No! Not again," Wuzz exclaimed. "Wait, what!? My magic, it's being canceled out!"

"Stand down, and listen," Gazer said, switching from mirthful to threatening. "I can end your entire party here and now, but you have a chance to escape with your lives and defeat the Squizzard. All you have to do is go on a little quest for me."

The players all exchanged looks.

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice," Garbunkle sighed.

"Nope," McBigguns replied.

Starlight was getting impatient. Spike had said that there would be a signal for when she should enter the game. But it had not come yet. They were already an hour into the game. She knew the campaign's layout and the rough time frame. Oddly enough, she was feeling left out even though it was not a game she particularly wanted to play.

She decided it was best to take a peak and see what was going on. But as she pushed on the door to let herself get a glimpse, she found it would not budge. She pushed harder against it, but nothing. Next she tried her horn.

There was a flash and a painful moment later Starlight was hurled against the wall. Her horn sparked and itched terribly.

"Ouch! What was that?"

She got up and carefully inspected the door this time. There was no doubt. Somehow had magicked it from the other side to prevent entry. And they had added that nasty shock. That was not something Spike would have done. The whole situation suddenly felt wrong.

"I need to get Twilight! Someone has taken over the Map Room and might have our friends hostage!"

She galloped away to find the princess.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A New Quest

The Gazer leered down at the party, a deadly smirk playing about its lipless mouth. The party regrouped, holding themselves at the ready. They knew that defeating the Gazer outright would be very, very difficult, but with sharp glances and nods between them each knew that they were united in whatever happened next.

"You say you don't have a choice, but that isn't true," the Gazer taunted. "But once you know the consequences it _does_ make the choice easier, no?"

"We might want to regroup outside of the game and figure out what we are going to do," Garbunkle muttered under his breath. "I never planned anything like this. This isn't your doing, is it Discord?"

"Not that I-"

"This was not the dear captain's doing," the Gazer laughed. "It was yours, Garbunkle, or Spike the Game Master, whichever you would prefer! You brought us into this world and made us part of the story. It was inevitable that I would appear!"

"But I didn't use you," Garbunkle, Spike, began stammering.

"Oh, but you _did_! You used the talismans." Gazer gestured with its extra eyes to the pedestals in each corner of the hall. "By bringing them into your little campaign, you have incorporated their stories into your own."

"Please tell me you brought your GM guidebook with you," Rainbow Dash muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"Unfortunately, I didn't," Spike squeaked.

"Then how are we supposed to know what we're supposed to do!" she demanded.

"By taking up the quest," the Gazer answered. "Or you could try blasting your way out of here through me. Though that would be unadvisable for a number of reasons."

"Well, let me tell you what I think of your reasons," Discord said, raising a hand, mismatched fingers ready to snap. "We're done with you! If anyone is going to interfere in our game night like this, it's time that we end this part of the story. Goodbye!"

SNAP!

Nothing happened.

Discord gave his clawed hand an appalled look and snapped a couple of times more. He switched to his paw and tried but got the same result. All the while the Gazer rocked across the ceiling laughing.

"My powers are greater than yours! If you want to beat me, you must play by the rules of the game!"

"Alright then!" Discord shouted with a growl, knocking an arrow. "Let's take this Gazer!"

"But Discord! If you can't use your powers, we don't stand a chance against him without a plan," Spike protested.

"And each eye does something different, don't forget," Pinkie quickly added.

Discord took aim. "That's why we take those out first!"

Rainbow Dash pulled down his bow with her hoof and said, "Look, I'm all for beating up the bad guy and getting out of here, but that magic of his is some serious stuff! I wasn't able to move because of whatever he did to me. I was helpless! If any one of us gets taken out too early, we're all in trouble. And look, he's got more eyes than there are party members! We'd be goners before we even had a chance!"

The draconequus sighed and let up on his bow. "Who would have thought that you would be the voice of reason in this situation?"

The pegasus gave him a look but backed off. The party shared another glance between them, this time more somber. Rainbow Dash had made an excellent point. Spike knew a little bit about the Gazer and its abilities. One of those eyes could dispel and magic cast at the creature so long as that eye was looking at the spellcaster. He was certain that the Gazer was using that one eye right now on them.

Spike spoke up and said, "Fine! We'll listen to your quest, Gazer. What do want us to do?"

"Excellent! I'm happy you see things my way," the monster said with another horrid laugh. "This is just going to be so much fun, I can barely contain myself!"

The party braced itself for exposition and the monster's proposition.

"There are four legendary beasts that have escaped across this land: a dreaded hydra, the progenitor of the windigos, a cockatrice capable of consuming entire cities, and a chimera. The Squizzard hoped to drain and channel their vitality and power to fuel his schemes and plans to dominate this world, but as he tampered with their prisons her released them.

"Where once powerful wizards of old sealed these titans into stone and turned them into talismans, they have gained their freedom and have a thousand years of rage to unleash. Luckily for you, the spell which once bound them still lays on them. Once their anger is drained or if their vitality is weakened enough, the stone will overtake them.

"Go and find these monsters, gather them for me and place them again on the pedestals. Once you have completed this request, I swear that I will allow you to go forward and finish off the Squizzard!"

"Why do you want us to do all the dirty work? We could just finish off the Squizzard and be done with this," Rainbow Dash complained. "I don't see why we have to go along with you when you are clearly so much more powerful!"

"I will keep the Squizzard here, trapped in his palace," the Gazer answered. "Let's just say that I am helping you get what you want by helping me get what I want. I lose potentially nothing in this deal aside from useful pawns."

"But what assurances do we have that you will not betray us once we have acquired these four talismans?" Discord asked. "Why would we want to give an already super powerful being even more power?"

The monster rolled all of his eyes in different directions as he responded, "Can't you tell what is going on here? You are being railroaded! I have my reasons for doing this! By following through with my request you have the possibility of learning what game is really at play here. Or you can resist me and perish here within your own fantasy."

"Honestly, that's a compelling argument," Discord replied. "I am convinced."

"Erm… Maybe," BigMac said. "I don't feel too comfortable with this. Any other ideas?"

The Gazer glared back at the knight.

Pinkie Pie had somehow retrieved a book and pencil and was quickly writing in it. Through her teeth she said, "I don't see any other options. Besides, Rainbow Dash, didn't you want to play a more serious game? We have four different bosses to battle and a whole lot of adventures ahead if we go that route. And I think we can trust him!"

"Apple Jack would be a better judge of this Gazer," Dash harrumphed.

"Yup!"

"We need to take the risk," Spike sighed. "It's better than duking it out here and getting blasted by this Gazer. Taking this quest does sound like the best option, but he even admits that he is railroading us, which is never good."

"What is railroading?" Dash asked.

"When the Game Master does everything in their power to force the players to only do what they want them to."

"That horrible!"

"That's life," the Gazer barked. "Enough deliberating! What is your decision?"

"We'll do it," Discord declared. "We will sally forth across the land and find these fourth mythical creatures! We will defeat them and bring your talismans back to you. And you had better stick to your word, because we will be ready for you next we meet if you do not keep your promises!"

Gazer hissed, "Wonderful… Let me give you a map of what lies ahead."

A beam burst from his main eye and projected a 3-D map of the land. There was the Squizzard's palace. The highways and mountains. The princess' castle and the woods nearby. Undulating, red dots were at four different corners of the map.

"Those markers are where you may find the creatures," the monster instructed.

"I have a copy of the map," Pinkie sang.

"Good, because repeatedly coming back to weary me with inquiries would be… tedious," Gazer said.

"First you interrupt our game night, then you railroad our campaign, and now you're going to be stingy with directions? How much better can this game get," Dash complained.

"Come on everypony, let's get going," Spike said uneasily. "The sooner we do this, the sooner we can escape this game."

Discord gestured with two fingers at his eyes and then one to the Gazer. "I'll be back for you. No one makes the Lord of Chaos look a noob when it comes to magic!"

"It'll be a pleasure," the Gazer sneered.

Without another word, the group left the Squizzard's castle and began their all-new quest.

Just like Starlight before her, Twilight was thrown away from the door. Black magic swirled around her horn and her wings felt tingly. Her eyes shifted in and out of focus.

"Twilight! Twilight! Are you okay," Starlight shouted.

"Ugh… No… No!" She regained her senses and leaped back onto all fours. "No, Spike and the others are locked in that room and we have no way of getting in! Teleportation doesn't work and trying to unlock the door just gets you zapped!"

Starlight studied the door. She pawed at it with her hoof and was pushed back.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"No, never," Twilight fretted. "But there might be a clue in the library!"

Starlight had no inclination to tell her how Twilight that was, but instead said, "I'll go and round up the others. I'm not sure how they can help in this situation, but the more heads we have working on this problem, the sooner we should be able to figure this out."

"Good! Bring them right to the library!" Twilight called right before Starlight _poofed_ away with her magic. First stop was Apple Jack's farm.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Into the Forest

"All I'm saying is that if we want to take on the Gazer, we NEED my party cannon," Pinkie said as she hoped along.

"How are we even going to make your party cannon!? Discord can't use his magic anymore, and we don't have any of your party gags," Rainbow Dash complained.

"How did he even manage to do that to you anyway?" Spike asked Discord, scratching at his beard. It was feeling strangely itchy.

"Beats me. It's infuriating-"

"We need an artificer!" Pinkie declared, standing on her hind hooves.

"Huh?" the party said altogether.

"Didn't you read the new expansion guide before you used it, Spike?" Pinkie asked, exasperated. "It's an all-new class of character. They can use metal and magic to make all these kinds of cool contraptions and machines! If we could find one or level up fast enough to multi-class, then we could do it! And with my party cannon I could blind that Gazer and give us a chance to beat it, since we've all been metagamed right out of our usual roleplaying and are cursed."

"Well, when you put it that way, yup!" Big Mac said.

They all shared an embarrassed glance. Pinkie was right on the nose. They had been handed a solid loss and were no longer enjoying the game. Here they were, grumbling and complaining along the road to a mystical forest where a massive Windigo was waiting for them.

Spike felt terrible that he had gotten them into this mess and apologize profusely. The others didn't hold it against him. Rainbow Dash said that they should be used to it after the whole comic book incident. That didn't exactly make him feel any better. It was just another example of how he bungled things up. And to think that he had been conniving to use Ogres and Oubliettes to spend more time with Rarity not even a few hours ago!

"This isn't the first time that a villain has stripped me of my powers," Discord huffed. "But when we're working together, we'll figure it out. Yuck! Just how long have I been around you ponies?"

"You're the one who keeps insisting to hang out with us and help Twilight with her friendship lessons," Dash replied with a knowing grin.

Discord rolled his eyes and they continued down the path in silence.

Spike finally broke the monotony by saying, "I did read a little bit in the manual, Pinkie. What I remember is that the Windigo is a boss level monster that will use a combination of earthquake attacks, vines, thons, wind, and a howl that will cause us to freeze up. It will also summon entire packs of smaller windigos to try and overrun us."

"So we got to smash that boss fast," Dash exclaimed.

"Charging in swords raised and spells blazing is fine and all," Discord drawled. "But this is a boss. It will require strategy. And I don't think that the Gazer is sending us on any kind mission either. This is meant to knock us around a bit. And since that is the case, we might want to be careful."

"Who replaced Discord?" Dash asked.

"He's right. The woods should be full of ingredients for spells or items that we can use to help us take down the Windigo," Spike said quickly. "Who has good nature checks?"

"Me," Big Mac rumbled.

"Yours truly, of course," Discord answered smugly.

"Not a problem," Rainbow Dash said confidently.

"We'll be arriving soon," Spike noted. The tree line was just a few hills away. "We don't want to go too far in before having a look around. Because once we enter the forest, we'll have to fight our way through the monsters in there and solve the puzzle of the wooded paths."

"Are these monsters going to be anything like the cheesy cardboard cutout skeleton knights the Squizzard is always sending after us?" Pinkie asked.

"I beg your pardon, but those are works of art and take hours to individualize," Discord harrumphed, crossing his arms sourly.

"I think we should keep our eyes open for anything," Spike said.

"That Gazer was no cardboard cutout," Big Mac said. "Safe to assume that the other won't be either."

"Works of art!" Discord sang, still sounding annoyed.

"Come on guys, let's pick up the pace and get there! The sooner we're at the forest, we sooner we can finish this first part of our quest," Rainbow Dash urged.

When the group arrived, they began poking around the bushes and just around the trees, careful to not wander too deep into the woods. The knight, rogue, and ranger quickly located an assortment of different mushrooms and herbs that could be used for boosting strength and healing, but they would require some work.

"Give me a moment, and I'll get the potions going," Spike said.

"But that's going to take forever!" Dash complained. "We should be stomping the Windigo boss flat right about now!"

Pinkie Pie was off to the side, making paint from the different berries and fungi she found. When asked what in the name of Celestia she was doing, she responded that they would need paint. Rainbow Dash cantered and harrumphed around the entrance to the forest, being impatient. The trees bent to form an arch into the dark canopy beyond. Only a few pillars where sunlight fell illuminated the forbidden woods beyond.

"After dealing with the Squizzard for so long, I have to say that it is nice having to deal with a proper villain," Discord suddenly said. "Oh, don't get me wrong, having our game night hijacked by a fictional monster and getting my powers taken away are absolutely infuriating, but there is something to be said for a quest that will push us. I can't remember the last time we had to go foraging or be smart about how we approached a puzzle."

Spike felt hot under the scales and scratched again at his beard. It made him uncomfortable to hear his friend imply that they might be having more fun in this terrible scenario than during a regular game night.

"The big question," Pinkie said, cutting in after tasting some of her paint. "Is what does the Gazer want with all of these tokens that we are supposed to collect? What does a collection of eyeballs want with little statues anyway? Hmm, needs more berries!"

"I bet there's something super powerful about them that will allow him to conquer the whole land," Dash said, waving her hooves about.

"Should we not get the token, then?" Big Mac asked.

"I'm afraid that won't do, my good Sir McBigguns," Discord said sagely. "The Gazer could wipe the floor with us as we currently are. If these tokens have any special powers, we should collect them so we can use them against that eyeball menace!"

"I'm with Discord on this one," Rainbow Dash replied.

"What we really need is a party cannon!" Pinkie declared.

"Won't you give that a rest?" Dash asked, exasperated.

"Alright everyone, cut it out," Spike said impatiently. "The potions are just about done. We should have enough healing elixir for everyone here and a strength potion for three of us. We'll probably find more in the forest, but I don't think we want to brew more potions when creatures could get us at any moment."

"Fine by me," the pegasus said.

With the potions distributed, the party was ready to set out again, entering the darkened woods. Thanks to Discord's tracking abilities, they were able to discern the path and not get lost between the trees. Angry faces in their bark glared down at them, daring the party to venture further. As they did, the wind picked up and leaves blew into the faces. Trees crackled as they swayed and a howl sounded from somewhere far away. The darkness deepened and Spike shivered with fright.

"Well, this isn't good," Discord said, thumbing over his shoulder. "The forest is changing the path. It must have happened with the wind, trying to cover up what changes happened."

"What do you mean," Big Mac started asking, but then said, "Oh…"

Just where they had walked now loomed a large, twisted tree. A horribly gleeful face etched into its bark leered down at them. Rainbow Dash peeked around the trunk and said that there was no more path.

"Yeah, this isn't any good," she began saying.

"Except that was have a way back," Pinkie declared.

"How can we have a way back when the forest just messed up the path? It isn't even there anymore!"

"Because I marked it," Pinkie said happily. "Look!"

Sure enough, there was a reddish-purplish line painted off to one corner. The party followed it and turned around a bush. The entrance to the woods was right ahead of them, a line painted solidly along the ground. Pinkie waved a tree branch dripping in her self-made paint.

"Was I the only one of us who read through the guide? A terrifying, changing forest is in chapter four of settings and battle scenarios!"

"Anything else you would like to tell us," Discord asked tersely.

"No, I only got through chapter twelve. I won't know until we have another encounter. Though this forest should be full of warrior squirrels and I wouldn't be surprised if the trees start attacking us as well," she said.

A wooden spear ripped her branch away.

"Rawr!"

The party all looked up and saw the trees, their eyes now had glowing eyes as they readied other heavy spears to hurl at them. Spike reacted quickly and cast an ice spell, freezing one tree in place before it could skewer him. Big Mac summoned his sword and used it to cut the spears out of the air as they came streaking for his friends.

Discord smugly loaded in a couple of arrows and launched them into the eyes of the attacking trees. They howled in pain and drew back. Pinkie retrieved her branch and began painting again along the rediscovered trail.

"Quickly everypony! Follow Pinkie," Rainbow Dash shouted.

The boys pulled back, Spike now casting a fireball to consume the most aggressive tree. Big Mac covered their rear as they continued along the path. They were then pelted with a hailstorm of nuts. As the nuts collided with the ground or the friends, they exploded. The team was knocked to the ground as the chittering of angry squirrels filled the woods.

"Level two warrior squirrels. Low armor class and HP, but they are hard to hit and are a real pain," Pinkie squeaked.

"Then let's give them a taste of their own medicine," Dash shouted.

As the nuts rained down on them again, she kicked in all directions, moving her body and hooves as fast as she could. The nuts exploded on impact, but the force and speed with which Rainbow Dash retaliated send the blasts rocketing back up to the trees. The squirrels squealed in panic as they were knocked out of the branches.

Discord drew himself up next and began letting loose his own storm of arrows, striking the hapless squirrels in midfall. They _poofed_ away with each hit. Those that managed to escape the first counter tried scrambling away, but Big Mac mowed down the underbrush with his large sword. Spike shot lightning, resulting in more squirrels disappearing in puffs of smoke.

The trees all around them began coming to life, their eyes glowing and wielding large spears. Pinkie now jumped into action playing a silly but soothing melody. The trees continued to roar, but their eyes drooped a little and their aim became sloppy. The party stayed put as the spears riddled the ground around them.

"Keep playing! We can put the entire forest to sleep," Rainbow Dash encouraged.

Within moments, the dark forest was pacified. They searched the wreckage for anything that the squirrels might have dropped. Pinkie kept up the music, playing her flute, to make sure that the trees stayed asleep.

"Our lot for this encounter appears to be nothing more than a bunch of exploding nuts," Rainbow Dash complained.

"Hmm! Yummy," Discord said, popping one into his mouth. He burped and expelled a flash of flame and smoke.

"These could be useful for causing a distraction or creating a smoke screen," Spike said, conjuring a bag to pour all of the nuts into. Big Mac used his unicorn horn to levitate them all in.

"Oh! There is something else! A small sword, probably from their leader," Dash said happily. "It's more a dagger to a pony, really, but I think it could come in handy."

"Be my guest," Spike replied.

"Hmm," Big Mac mused, inspecting the spears. "We could use some of these, too. Use them to ward off any bigger beast."

"There you have it, Rainbow Dash," Discord said. "It might have been a silly encounter, and the loot is not flashy, but it's all useful."

"Yeah, yeah," she harrumphed. "But if we are going to fight a boss, I would like to have more than nuts, spears, and a dagger."

"Wouldn't we all," Spike said. "I'm just glad that we can still keep our potions. We don't want to be low on materials before we encounter the Windigo. Are you good to keep playing, Pinkie?"

The bright pony winked back at him, having fun with her music.

"I guess I'll keep painting the path," the small dragon offered. "Discord, you've got the nuts? Big Mac, you got the spears?"

"Yup!"

"At your service!"

"Good, Rainbow Dash, take the lead. We'll rely on your skills and eyes to keep us safe as we keep going."

"Roger," she said proudly.

For a moment, Spike felt like they finally had the situation under control. It wasn't optimal, but they hadn't lost their sense of teamwork and a small victory went a long way to restoring their confidence. Dipping the broken branch back into Pinkie's paint (where had she found the bucket?), Spike connected their path she had marked previously.

They picked up their journey once again, going ever deeper into the spooky woods.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Boss Battle: Windigo

The party battled their way through a few more encounters, emerging victorious each time. There was another band of warrior squirrels, who attacked and managed to disrupt Pinkie, waking up the trees. However, it all ended the same as the first encounter had. Soon, Discord was carrying two bags of exploding nuts and Big Mac was sweating from the exertion of carrying so many heavy spears. Pinkie managed to lull the tress back to sleep shortly after their second victory.

There was a bridge ogre waiting for them where a river cut a deep ravine through the forest. It challenged them to a battle of wits. Discord accepted and bent the ogre's mind with the riddle: This word retains its pronunciation, though you remove four of its five letters. The ogres actually had the answer, but he then sat down on the rocks and said that he needed to contemplate his place in the universe.

With the bridge ogre pacified, the party continued over the bridge.

Spike was beginning to worry about running out of paint when they ran into a pack of windigos. They had to circle the band and alternate between spells and physical damage to ward off the pack. After a bit of motivation from Pinkie they were able to scatter the pack. Spike searched the area and discovered more ingredients that he could mix for future potions.

"These mushrooms can be used for a polymorph spell!" he said gleefully. "And these roots can either shrink or enlarge someone in the party!"

"Nice going Spike," Rainbow Dash said appreciatively.

"Yup!"

"Does anyone else think that we might be getting close to the boss?" Discord asked. "Coming across a pack of windigos sounds like a good indicator. Maybe they were the minions to soften us up for the big fight."

"If that was what this quest was going for, I'd say that we passed with flying colors," Dash said with a big grin.

"I hope we find the boss soon," Spike said. "We're almost out of paint."

"Nice thinking though, Pinkie. This forest would have been a pain to navigate on our way out, Discord commended. "Though, really, I think my tracking skills would still have sufficed."

"Happy to help," Pinkie said before jumping back onto the flute.

Big Mac searched the glade in which the windigos had attacked them. During the fight there had been another gust of the wind and the trees had all changed position. The knight discovered another pathway hiding behind two wide trees.

"There's a cave up this way," he informed them.

"Alright, let's check this out," Discord said.

"Going ahead to check it out," Dash shouted, speeding up and back before the whole group had assembled. "Okay, so there are a ton of bones and old armor over there. I'm pretty certain that a large monster lives inside of that cave. Soooo, maybe the boss?"

Spike swallowed hard. "Potions out, I think?"

"Nah, if we hit this hard, whether it's a boss or another small encounter, we can crush this thing in no time flat!" Rainbow Dash bragged.

Discord hefted the two bags that he carried, saying, "I think we finally have a chance to use these. It's a cave, you say? Then I have just the idea."

There was a crazy glint in his eye and a mischievous grin on his face. The party trooped up to the mouth of the cave. A foul stench permeated the area and a hot, moist wind blew from deep inside.

"Yeah, it's nasty," Rainbow Dash said, making sure her mask was in place. Spike pinched his nose.

"Look at all of these bones. This creature eats well," Discord noted. "It could be an Ursa Major, but the cave is too small."

Pinkie stopped playing her music and surveyed the site. "The trees here seem kind of tame. Like they fear something, look at how small they are."

"Who made you the tree-whisperer?" Discord asked.

"I've got my talents!"

"I'm happy that we aren't fighting an Ursa Major. They really scary and super strong," Spike said.

Discord snorted and pointed to the mouth of the cave. "What we need is for someone to go in and see if there's something in there to wake up. If so, wake it up and then as it come out we drop both bags of nuts and collapse the entrance."

"Why not do that first?" Dash asked.

"Because we can do a whole lot more damage this way," Discord said with grim satisfaction. "I'm pretty certain that we've found our Windigo boss. If so, this would be a good way to get ahead. But we still need someone to go in and check."

He looked at the others. Spike shook his head and gestured to his short legs. Big Mac coughed and looked away. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Of course I'm going to be the one to do it! I have all the speed, anyway!"

She zipped into the cave. A few seconds later there was a bone chilling howl. Rainbow Dash then burst out of the darkness, her pupils visibly contracted and her legs shaking.

"I t-think w-we've found the b-b-boss," she said shakily. "It's huge! Nd not like any windigo I've seen before!"

Discord rushed up the stones that crossed to make the mouth of the cave. The ground shook as the enormous boss heaved itself towards the entrance. Red eyes gleamed through the gloom. The blast of uncomfortable hot air hit again. It smelled of death and rot. Spike felt sick to his stomach. He readied a spell as Pinkie played a jolly tune to encourage them.

The mossy, green snout of the massive Windigo protruded from the dark entryway and Discord flipped both bags of exploding nuts. The little walnut-like bombs cascaded down and erupted in two massive plumes of smoke and debris. Discord leaped and spun gracefully from the archway and landed, spinning about with his bow at the ready.

Another terrible howl later and the Windigo forced its way through the stones. The entrance had collapsed just as Discord intended. Its face was burnt and mangled, but otherwise the boss was ripped and ready for a brawl.

AAARRROOOOOOOOOO!

"Now Spike!" Discord yelled.

Emboldened and empowered by Pinkie's song, Spike unleashed a raging fireball. It slammed into the Windigo boss' chest, scorching even more of its body. Bits of bark and embers scattered in all directions. A wave of heat washed over the party and singed Spike's beard.

"Woah, woah! Watch out there, Spike!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You'll set the rest of the forest on fire!"

The Windigo slammed a paw on the ground, causing the earth to shatter. They were showered with shrapnel and the loss of health pulled at them. Before Spike could check for a way to track his own HP, silent cursing himself for not having checked this much sooner, a fissure opened underneath him. Pinkie's squeal and her music suddenly cutting off signaled the same for her. Both dragon and pony plunged into the broken earth.

"Gotcha!" Big Mac roared, as his horn's magic levitated Spike out of his demise.

Spike glanced towards Pinkie and saw Rainbow Dash hauling her friend up. Discord provided cover fire with his arrows, aiming for the Windigo's eyes. The massive wolf snarled at Discord. A blast of energy emitted from its stinking maw and Discord's eyes went cross and he stumbled to the ground.

"He's been bewildered!" Spike shouted. "The boss can bewilder us!"

"Get that music going again," Rainbow Dash told Pinkie after setting her down. "We need Discord back in action. Spike! Big Mac! I'll give you both an opening! Just watch my back!"

"Yup!"

"What are you doing?" Spike asked.

Without another word, the pegasus assassin charged and cut into the wolf's chest, right where Spike had shot it. She pulled out daggers and lobbed them right into the blackened dent. Once the blades dug into the burnt wood, Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves into the knives. The Windigo reared and howled as the knives sunk deeper.

Big Mac spun his sword behind the Windigo's back legs. His large sword hacked at the wolf's Achilles. The Windigo wobbled and then fell with a resounding crash. Spike sent another fireball at the Windigo's face.

"Spike! Oh, never mind," Pinkie said.

"Pinkie, what are you- Holy Celestia!" the little dragon said as he turned back. True to the bard's words, his magic had sent enough heat and sparks to light the forest on fire.

At least they would be able to burn the Windigo to the ground, even if they also did themselves in in the process. Spike grimaced at his stupid mistake. The Windigo snarled and flipped its tail. Shards of wood flew into the air and blossomed into a new pack of regular sized windigos.

"On it," Rainbow Dash sang as she fell among the pack and delivered crippling kicks to the newcomers.

"Shhhtill dishy her," Discord slurred.

Spike printed and jumped over the fissures in the ground, trying to reach his friend. He could cast a spell to lift the bewilderment, if only he could tap Discord with his staff! Meanwhile, Big Mac continued to lay into the boss with his massive blade. Pinkie Pie was up and got her one-pony band up and going once again. The flames began spreading and the heat rose.

The Windigo shakily rose back on its feet and howled again to the sky. The party was horrified to watch the boss heal itself. The slashes Big Mac had made to disable it healed entirely. Its face stitched itself back together and Dash's knives fell out of its chest. Thankfully, the charred bull's eye from Spike's spell was still there.

WHAP!

Spike finally tagged Discord. The draconequus shook his head violently and his eyes reverted to normal. He thanked Spike and then pulled back his bow, charging a powerful arrow. The Windigo's focus was on Big Mac who was bravely facing down the boss. Discord loosed his arrow right into the beast's exposed eye.

HHHOOOOOOOOOWWLLL!

The boss' head snapped into their direction. Spike conjured a mirror right in front of the Windigo. It was a weak reflect attack spell, and wouldn't work on a creature this powerful, but the reflection shocked the gigantic wolf long enough for them to make a mad dash back to Pinkie. They continued to leap over the small chasms, from which thorny vines were now sprouting.

"This is an entirely different level of boss fight," Discord shouted. "This is much harder than anything else you've made in the past!"

"Thanks for reminding me of my deficiencies as a game master," Spike shot back.

"No! Not at all! This is a little more over the top than what even I, the Master of Chaos, would expect in a friendly game of Ogres and Oubliettes."

"That Gazer is out to kill us!"

"No, he just wants us to go a super dangerous quest so he can complete a nefarious plan," Pinkie said simply.

Discord rolled his eyes, before firing another arrow. "Thank you Captain Obvious!"

"You know, I never was able to settle on a name, but Captain Obvious just doesn't sound like it would work, obviously!" She giggled and then fired a beam of magical musical notes at the Windigo.

The boss became shaky, falling under the effects of an enchantment. Pinkie mesmerized the Windigo with her music luring it closer. Its blind eye glared back at Spike. Pinkie encouraged Spike, Discord and Big Mac to deliver a finishing blow.

Big Mac used his sword to carve an X into the burnt chest. Spike cast a guidance and a damage enhancement spell. Discord launched an arrow with one last exploding walnut. It hit true and ripped the X cut in the Windigo's chest apart. The great wolf howled once more, and the earth shook violently.

"Woah!" the party all screamed.

Rainbow Dash finished bucking the smaller windigos and shot skyward, cleaving her way right through the boss. A bright rainbow erupted out the Windigo's backside, showering everyone in bits of bark. The vines then surged and took hold of the party members down on the ground.

The vines glowed a sickly green color. Spike, Discord, Big Mac and Pinkie Pie all moaned in agony as more vitality was robbed from them. The vines latched onto the Windigo and it began healing itself. It let loose another savage howl and its recovery speed doubled.

"Celestia, this sucker is hard!" Discord bellowed.

"Watch out every pony!"

Rainbow Dash streaked by, throwing shuriken and severing the vines. As Spike fell onto his backside an idea came to him.

Sitting up abruptly he called to his friends, "Big Mac! Rainbow Dash! Use the severed vines to tie up the Windigo. The rest of us, when I say so, we need to run!"

"Into the burning forest?" Pinkie Pie checked.

'Exactly! It's out best bet!"

The rogue and knight used their speed and powers to take the shredded lengths of vines to tie up the Windigo's feet. The best snarled and snapped at them, nearly swallowing Big Mac. The stallion managed to fend it off with his sword. On Spike's command, the rest charged right for the burning woods.

"Come on every pony!"

The Windigo pounced but ultimately tripped up and dove headfirst into the burning ruin that had become this world's Everfree Forest. The boss creature yelped in pain and rage, fighting to get free. Once its bonds were weakened enough to break, it rounded on the team, but it just found more flames in front of it. Spike had set all the other vines on fire.

Everyone had gathered at the mouth of the cave, standing to defend it. Pinkie beat a solemn song as they prepared for one last go with the massive wolf. It snarled, knowing that an end to the battle was near.

"Alright! Get your best attacks ready, and we fight it at the same time," Spike commanded.

"Yup!"

"You got it!"

"At your command, o' Garbunkle!"

The Windigo sprang for its den, howling and spitting a beam of dark, green magic at them. Spike retaliated with his own beam of white energy. Pinkie shot another stream of musical notes while Big Mac added his horn's own ray of magic. Discord shot a blazing arrow and Rainbow Dash flew with a rainbow streaming behind her with one final kick.

All of the attacks clashed and for a moment everything held still in the air, as if time was frozen.

"Give it your all!" Spike yelled.

With everything combining into a bright orb of power, Dash bucked the entire attack right into the Windigo's mouth. It exploded with a shockwave of energy and blinding light. A second later, the smoking, headless body of their first boss smashed into the hillside next to them.

The battle was won.

"Hurry! Put out the fire," Discord encouraged.

With a lot of water spells and kicking up dust later, the fires were mostly put out. The entire clearing was a smoldering, smelly ruin. The entire battle site was a ruin, with chasms spiderwebbing all over the clearing and the ashen ghosts of plants dotting the scene. The smoke was so heavy that it was hard to breath. The gang pulled back into the cave to take a break.

"I- I guess we should loot the cave," Discord said, sounding uncharacteristically exhausted.

"Yup," Big Mac groaned.

Supporting one another, they trooped deep into the cavern. The smell from before got worse but being as tired as they were no complained. Eventually, they stumbled into a large room where they found pine needles stamped down into a large bed. They also found three treasure chests full of booty.

Rainbow Dash regained some of her peppiness and said, "Dibs!"

She charged the chests and flung them open. Besides finding a ton of golden bits, there were special items that could improve the combat quality of each party member. There was a new steel helmet that fit Big Mac and lessened the effect of any magical attack. A large magical gem was what Spike found, furthermore it could be used to amplify all his spells. Pinkie found the Golden Flute of Dreams, capable of lulling weak enemies to sleep and even affecting their dreams. There was a magical bow string for Discord, which upon use, he discovered that it could summon arrows for the four elements. Horseshoes of Stunning for Rainbow Dash allowed her to stun small fry and deal even more damage with her punches and kicks.

"That might have been a really hard battle, but if the loot is this good, then it's worth it," Big Mac said. "Though, this helmet needs some work…"

"We can get it customized for you at a village," Spike said. "We've got the bits for it now!"

"Oh, come on guys, that fight wasn't _that _hard," Rainbow Dash said, rolling her wings.

"Yes, we only almost had out butts handed to us on two different occasions," Discord reminded her.

"You guys, you mean," she shot back.

"Well, not all of us can just fly away when things on the ground get rough!"

"You have wings!"

"Hey guys, can we stop arguing and remember that we don't have any more paint, or a path to follow outside of this forest?" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"And we don't have the figurine that the Gazer wanted either," Spike said worriedly, checking through the emptied treasure chests. "We need to spread out and find it!"

"Rolling for treasure hunting," Discord replied lazily as he walked over to the bed of pine needles. He plunged in his lion's paw and pulled out a black figurine of a windigo. "And here it is! The beast probably slept on it! That way we would have to fight it or sneak in while it was out to steal it. The whole encounter was rigged to make sure that we confronted the boss one way or another. This was not some optional task."

"It makes me wonder what else we can expect to encounter with the other bosses," Spike sighed.

"Whatever it is, we'll do it together," Rainbow Dash pledged, slapping Spike across the back. He got zapped and fell to the ground.

"Next time, watch who you touch with those things…"

"Oops!"

"Best to put those away for now," Discord said, finding sack in the corner of the cave so they could pile in their treasures.

"Let's find a way out of here," Big Mac said. "Even without the paint trail, we should be able to manage it."

"Look at you suddenly becoming all vocal and participatory," Discord observed. The large stallion blushed a little.

Spike took out the new gem and cast a locating spell. "Alright, let's see how well this works!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Tavern Tales

It took them two days to get through the tricky forest and defeat its many other denizens. By the time they exited the woods, a little more battered than when they had entered, they had fully recovered from the boss battle and had put their new items to good use. Spike's locator spell had pointed the way to a good trail that they could use to get out of the forest.

Rainbow Dash used her new horseshoes to completely paralyze a band of roving goblins. Pinkie Pie then lulled them to sleep and inspired them to sleepwalk back to their camp which the team raided for food. They finally tied the goblins up before dashing to safety.

Discord used his magical arrows to waterlog more warrior squirrels and send them packing. And Big Mac took a club to the head from a particularly nasty tree. His solid steel helmet shattered the club and frightened the tree enough to have it rip itself from the ground and flee.

They now exited from underneath an archway of thorny hedges and passed by a squat guard house. Three, poorly armored Earth ponies charged through the doors blocking the party from getting any closer to a village in the near distance.

"Where are you five going?" one demanded.

"They are warriors!"

"Coming here to attack the town?" the third demanded.

"Wait until they answer my question!" the first snapped.

"What if I play a tune for you ponies? You look like you could ease up a bit," Pinkie said sincerely. She whipped out her new flute.

The three ponies back up and eyed her warily.

"Why does it always have to be guard encounters?" Spike muttered.

"Why do game masters always love to use them, then?" Discord asked with a laugh.

"It's different being on the receiving end of them…"

"You're going to have to stand down and hand over your weapons," one of the guards began saying. His face suddenly went slack and he crashed face first into the dirt. The other two guards followed in similar fashion.

Rainbow Dash stood there, grinning as the dust settled. "Let's do to them what we did to the goblins."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Pinkie Pie grumbled before playing her flute. Soon, the guards were all tied up in their guard house and Discord had packed their mouths full of gagging wads.

With their botched attempt at diplomacy now behind them, the party made their way into town. With a ton of bits weighing them down and having only eaten what they forage in the forest, every pony was ready to do some major spending. Given their ragged and somewhat smelly state, they first hit the baths and a clothes shop. Discord snorted at how they spelled shop with an extra P and E. Spike privately wished that it was Rarity who was dressing them.

Once they were finished, the party split to cover all the necessary bases. Discord took Big Mac to get his new helmet reforged to fir his aesthetic and original look. Spike and Pinkie Pie went to buy supplies for the next leg of their adventure. Rainbow Dash made for the tavern to start putting away mugs of cider and fish for information that would be helpful on their quest.

Their purses considerably lighter, but now carrying packs loaded with survival supplies, the party reunited at the tavern. Dash had already ordered a small meal and a round of cider for everyone. Eight empty mugs stood off to the side.

"We have a hydra, a chimera, and a cockatrice still to contend with," Spike said, ticking them down on his claws. "Did you find out anything helpful, Rainbow Dash?"

"Of course I did," she said, knocking back her ninth mug. "Hey! Barkeep, another would hit the spot!"

"Oh my! These stuffed truffles are simply divine!" Discord said.

Pinkie made a face. "Blarg!"

"Of come now, don't tell me you dislike stuffed truffles?"

"What did you find out, Dash?" Spike pressed.

"I haven't tried them. My parents once tried to give us stone and mushroom soup. I couldn't stomach it!"

Rainbow Dash greedily swiped up her tenth mu from a waiter before saying, "The cockatrice was spotted consuming the city of Bitson. Barely any pony got out of that mess. There's a path of destruction that we could follow."

"Come on Pinkie, don't knock 'til you try it!"

"Yup!"

"But besides that, there are also rumors that a massive hydra has taken up residence in the swamps beyond the Razorback Ridge," Rainbow Dash said, her voicing switching that covert, excited tone she adopted whenever she spoke about Daring Do. "And, there's an even a mysterious pony there in the corner who has information that she is willing to trade."

"Gross! Yuck!"

"Just imagine that they're cupcakes."

Spike looked over to the corner and saw a pony in a dark corner wearing a cloak with the hood up. She was smoking a pipe that with a brief puff barely illuminated shrewd eyes looking right at them. Spike felt that those eyes were familiar, somehow.

"YOU CAN KEEP THOSE STINKING MUSHROOMS AND STUFF THEM UP YOUR NOSE! TRUFFLES ARE THE GROSSEST, MOST BLANDEST OF BAD TASTING FUNGI THAT ONLY PONIES WHO KNOW NO HAPPINESS AND HAVE NEVER EATEN A PROPER CUPCAKE WITH FROSTING THINKS PASSES FOR AN ACCEPTABLE ADDITION TO A MEAL!"

The entire tavern was now looking at Pinkie. The cook poked his head out of the kitchen, his eyes narrowed angrily. The bard smiled sheepishly and muttered under her breath, "I'm going to make you pay for this!" She got up and began her one-pony band routine while the archer threw his head back in a fit of laughter.

Spike finally helped himself to something other than the truffles, muttering, "We should let this blow over before we let the rest of the party know what you learned."

Once the table was cleared of dirty dishes and Rainbow Dash was finally wobbly from sixteen mugs of apple cider, Spike filled everyone in on what their rogue had learned. Discord suggested that they go over the mountains and fight the hydra and hopefully level up before taking on the cockatrice. He reasoned that with a beast that could consume entire cities, they might want to have more experience and items under their belts. Big Mac agreed.

For her part, Pinkie Pie disagreed and said that it would be better to save the next city from falling victim to the cockatrice. Rainbow Dash was of the same mindset, but she was thinking more about being a hero, and getting love and support from the citizens to help the party in their quest. The deciding vote fell on Spike.

"Let's first talk with that pony who's been watching us this entire time. I think she might want us to talk with her," he said, gesturing to dark corner.

"Well, if we must. But I get the feeling that we're about to be waylaid on our quest," Discord sighed.

They got up and moved over to the corner. The shrouded pony sat more erect as they approached. Spike felt tense. He also felt sheepish for putting off the vote to talk with this strange pony. After the fight with the Windigo, he felt worried about putting the party in the crosshairs of another boss character soon. Rainbow Dash's information made it clear that their quest's continuation was close. It was not usually so in most long-term campaigns.

"We hear that you have some information for us, so if you could please share it with us? Pretty please with whipcream and a bucket of cherries on top?" Pinkie Pie pleaded.

"Come closer," the pony whispered.

Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof down on the table and warned, "Any funny business and this gets ugly."

The stranger smirked and said, "No, there won't be any trouble at all."

She pulled back her hood and the party collectively gasped, "Starlight Glimmer!?"

"Really? I thought I was supposed be Starfall," the reformed villain said, shaking her mane and confused. "When did we drop the mythical quest names? That was part of how I even got here!"

"We kind of stopped using them once we realized that we were in a very real thing and not a game," Rainbow Dash explained.

"Dash and I didn't even have mythical game names to begin with!"

"Then why was I saddled with one?" Starlight asked, making Spike grin and blush with embarrassment.

"Never mind that, how did you get here?" Discord asked, waving a hand.

Starlight sighed and explained, "We figured out how we could get into the game. It took a little while, because the room is blocked off to us. Not even Twilight can magic her way in! So we got everyone together and we brainstormed what could be done. Applejack went into your room Spike and they found the receipt for the game master guidebook. Twilight recognized the name. Why did you go to a place where you've already once bought a magic comic book, Spike?"

"Because it had some really good stuff in it," Spike mumbled. "I wanted to make a game experience that would keep everyone together and get new players in."

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Pinkie asked, rubbing Spike's shoulder. "We would have all come together to help you! We enjoy playing the game, and if you wanted others to play, all you had to do was ask for volunteers."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Big Mac said. "But what's in the past is in the past. Starlight, do you have a way to get us out?"

"Unfortunately not," she answered, shaking her head again. She looked a little upset but pressed on quickly. "We did figure out that we could get ourselves into the game through a little bit of tricky magic. Twilight and the others remembered how you had to work your way through the comic book's story in order to beat it. She figured that it would be similar with this game, at least based off what she was able to research from your other Ogres and Oubliettes materials.

"We deduced that if we could somehow connect with the magic that is blocking us from entering the map room that we could insert ourselves into the story. However, we kept getting thrown out. That is, until I connected with it. Remember, you made me a character that I could use to enter your campaign."

"That's right! And we were planning on having you reprise the role of a reformed villain!" Spike declared.

"Spoilers," Pinkie sang.

"The game master and a player conspiring to railroad the party and character arc behind our backs. Of all the things that have happened to us, this is the last I expected from you Spike," Discord said in mock shock.

The little dragon rolled his eyes and asked, "So what is the plan?"

"Well, it took us until the morning to figure it out, but-"

"The morning? We've been here for days!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Time must move different between the game and real life," Starlight guessed.

Pinkie mused, "It would make sense, because the game moves as quickly as the party and the game master do. You can cover entire days in just one sentence. So, it would naturally make sense for this to happen."

"Since when did Pinkie suddenly become scholarly? Is that part of her being a bard?"

"No, that is in part from her having read most of the Ogres and Oubliette manuals available," Discord answered dryly.

"In any case," Starlight continued. "I was summoned here through the magic to join you, but only if you elected to visit with me. It has been really uncomfortable just sitting here and waiting for you guys! And Rainbow Dash, how many flagons of cider have you had by now?"

"BURP! Sixteen," the pegasus pony proudly declared.

The unicorn gave her a look of disgust before finishing, "If you accept to work with me, we can go and rendezvous with the rest of the girls. Once you accept me into the story, I can link with them and the characters they have made so that we can all adventure together and finish the quest."

"Wait! The others will be joining us?" Spike asked, awed.

"Looks like you're about to get your wish," Discord smiled.

"Yup!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" the dragon shouted. He then declared dramatically, "Join us on our quest and lead the way to the others!"

"Alright, let's get going," Starlight chuckled.

As they all made to leave the tavern, a pony crashed through the tavern doors.

"The town is under attack! Goblins lead by a minotaur have emerged from the forest and are looting the shops! Somepony please help!"

The party exchanged looks, remembering the guards they had bound up and gagged.

"Oops…"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Consequences

As they ran out into the village square, the adventurers were met by a large party of ragged goblins. Looming over them was a hulking, red minotaur hefting a nasty looking maul. Steam blew from his nostrils as he leered down at them.

"Those were the ones who robbed us!" one goblin accused, jabbing its untrimmed finger at the group.

"Was that us? Are you sure it wasn't another group of unfortunate and dumb adventurers?" Discord asked.

"They've got the smell," one goblin sniffed.

"It was easy finding you lot," the minotaur grumbled loudly. "You cut a path of destruction through the forest, and the guards who should protected this sleepy town were tied up and gagged. It was like finding a baby!"

"Don't you mean taking candy from a baby?" Pinkie corrected.

"Why would I steal from a baby?"

"I am feeling suddenly conflicted about fighting a morally-minded minotaur," Pinkie told the others.

"Then we've got this," Starlight said angrily as she bounded ahead, her horn alight.

Spike conjured a gust of wind and bowled the goblins over. Discord, Big Mac and rainbow Dash sprang into action, hacking, shooting, and kicking the goblins into oblivion. They squealed and _poofed_ out of existence as each attack landed.

"And this is with sixteen mugs of cider!" Dash gloated.

"Brag about it later," Starlight growled, unleashing her spell right at the minotaur.

The gigantic monster laughed and raised up a reflective talisman. Starlight's spell rebounded, becoming a black beam. It zapped her and she vanished in a flash of white. The group stopped in their tracks and their jaws dropped. The talisman crumbled in the minotaur's hand and he laughed with deep, guttural tones.

"Did she… Did Starlight just-" Pinkie began to say.

Tears welled up in Spike's eyes. He was angry. "No!" he snapped. "She's not gone!"

"Oh, I made sure of that," the minotaur laughed.

The diminutive wizard roared as he unleashed a lightning bolt right at the minotaur. The horned creature caught the spell with a bracer, absorbing the lightning attack. Big Mac slid behind the beat and slashed at its legs. The minotaur jumped up and avoided the attack. Discord fired an arrow which it caught with its other hand, just as Rainbow Dash slapped him upside his horned head with her zapping horseshoe. The minotaur jerked in midair, but still landed solidly on his feet.

"Did you really think that would stop me?" he mocked.

"This will!" Spike snarled.

The ground turned to mud, and the minotaur's weight worked against him. He sank immediately, rapidly plummeting to his waste. The monster smirked and began tearing himself from the muck. Discord shot an arrow from his magical string and the mud was turned to ice, sealing the minotaur in place.

"Pathetic magic," the monster snarled at Discord. His second bracer flashed, and the ice began shattering.

Rainbow Dash changed and bucked the minotaur right in the snout. His head jerked back with a crack and he laid limp for a moment. Just as Pinkie asked, "Did we take him down?" the minotaur snapped back into place and flexed his way out of the ice. His legs were still stuck in the frozen mud, impeding his movement.

Big Mac charged, roaring and sword whirling. A ring on the minotaur's hand flashed with black magic and an axe formed from the ring. He swung hard and parried Big Mac's attack. He then used the haft of his axe to swipe the knight aside. Discord fired a barrage of normal arrows, which the minotaur blocked in a frightening fashion.

The bracer that he had used to absorb Spike's lightning bolt spat the spell right back at Discord. The arrows were fried to a crisp and Pinkie had to jump in the way to shove Discord aside.

"Never trust a man wearing too much jewelry, there's always a catch," she grumbled.

"What's the catch?" Discord asked, brushing himself off.

Pinkie gestured at the cackling minotaur and screeched, "He's catching our attacks and rebounding them back!"

"But he's only got two bracers, which means he can only take two spells," Spike realized. "We need to hit him with more than he can handle! Pinkie, Discord, back me up!"

The wizard prepared another spell, using his enhancing gemstone. Rainbow Dash bounced around, looking for an opening in the minotaur's defenses. She was greeted with the flat side of the massive axe. She was propelled right through the wall of a nearby house. Big Mac came in, bellowing once more.

"More punishment? Fine!" The minotaur swung his axe, but this time Big Mac caught it.

Spike saw that his friend was using his horn's powers to not just wield his sword, but to also keep his footing. The minotaur's amazing strength was finally cancelled out, a fact that made the monster even more angry.

"He's using Berserk!" Pinkie wailed. "He's going to increase his strength and half any damage done to him."

"Then we have to make sure that we deal twice the amount," Discord replied smugly, pulling back his magical bow.

"Pinkie, make sure that you buff our spells," Spike shouted.

The bard wildly played her music, causing powerful auras to envelope Discord and Spike. The two friends shared a nod between them as they finished their preparations. The minotaur roared that he had had enough and finished tearing his legs free from the earth. He put his full weight into pushing Big Mac back as Spike and Discord finally unleashed their attacks.

"Big Mac! Get out of the way!" Spike yelled, releasing a fireball the size of a house.

The stallion threw himself aside as the minotaur let loose a laugh and held aloft his second bracer. A wall of ice formed and was blasted to smithereens. The minotaur was forced to alternate with his axe and bracers to withstand a hailstorm of fire, ice, and wind-bomb arrows, along with arrows that could transform into boulders right before hitting their target.

The minotaur was giving ground, spinning his axe and releasing stolen spell to repel Discord's intense barrage. Spike reformed the shattered ice into a sheet under the minotaur's feet. The monster's eyes bulged as he felt his unsure footing. Then Pinkie came in clutch with a blast of magical, musical notes which slammed him in the chest.

"Woah!"

CRASH!

The ice took its toll and the minotaur fell onto his back. He slammed his left fist down, the bracer flashing, and shattered the ice field. But the critical opening came, and Big Mac took full advantage of it. He leaped through the air and plunged his sword down towards the minotaur's chest. The beast barely caught the heavy sword with the curved, inside edge of his own massive axe.

"Got this!" Rainbow Dash yelled, finally extricating herself from the house and arcing through the sky. She landed with tremendous force right on Big Mac's pommel.

The extra weight and force did the job, spiking the sword down and overwhelming the minotaur's enhanced strength. The blade sank into his chest, but the minotaur only laughed.

"This won't be enough to defeat me! You missed your chance, adventurers!"

"Right! He only takes half damage, so we need to increase it!" Spike shouted, casting an enlarging spell on the sword.

The minotaur attempted to block the spell, but another barrage of arrows from Discord diverted his movements. As a result, Big Mac's sword became huge and heavy. It instantly sunk deeper into the monster's chest. His eyes bulged with surprise and pain.

Rainbow Dash and Big Mac together delivered the final blow. Big Mac's horned blazed as he forced his blade deeper in and Rainbow Dash crashed back down on the pommel, bouncing hard to hammer the nail home. A strangled gurgle escaped the minotaur's mouth as he was driven into the road.

"I'm not done yet," he croaked.

"He's also got Relentless? Give me a break!" Pinkie complained.

"Hey, this bozo has a tattoo that looks like that dumb Gazer!" Dash called over to the party.

"He was probably sent to make sure that we stayed on the quest," Spike said, walking over to the minotaur.

"You will pay for this…"

"Hng!" Big Mac was trying to pull his enlarged sword out of the minotaur.

"Why would the Gazer do something like that?" Discord asked. "It's sound counterintuitive to me to send a gang of bruisers to beat up the party if he's expecting us to collect those four figurines for him!"

"It's a lazy tactic used by inexperienced game masters," Spike explained, watching the sword rise. Rainbow Dash quickly removed the bracers and the wizard cast a spell of ropes to bind the weakened monster in place. "If the party is taking too long to make a decision, or if they might be going someplace the game master doesn't want, they can send an unexpected encounter their way to either punish them or to shake things up and get the story moving."

Realization shone on Discord's face as he said, "Or in the case if your party meeting up with an unexpected ally, you could get rid of them so that the players have to continue on the quest that you set out for them."

"Exactly," Spike sighed.

"NNNNNOOOOOOO!" the minotaur roared before he was beheaded.

Big Mac looked angrily down at the corpse before it_ poofed_ out of existence. Where the bodies of the fallen had once been there were small piles of bits. But where the minotaur had been there was new leather armor just Big Mac's size and the ring he had used to summon the axe.

As the party gathered their loot, the angry townsfolk came out to berate them. They were incensed that the adventurers would tie up their guards and sneak into town. This whole mess could have been adverted if they had only followed the rules. Spike privately agreed, though he doubted the guards would have stood much of a chance against this raiding party.

The friends agreed that they should give up the majority of their coin to the village so they could rebuild and recuperate after the damage that was done. In exchange, the party was allowed to leave the town by the speediest way possible.

"Well, that could have gone a lot worse," Rainbow Dash once they were outside of earshot from the villagers.

"It could have gone a whole lot better, too," Spike mourned.

"Do you think we lost Starlight for good?" Big Mac asked, concerned.

"It's hard to tell. I would need to know what kind of talisman the minotaur used to get rid of her," Spike said. "If we had the pieces I could cast Identify, but it slipped my mind in all the drama!"

"Never fear, pinkie is here!" The bright pink pony stuck out her tongue, showing off the fragments from the shattered trinket. "Et tasthy uf meenotar!"

"Pinkie! You're amazing," Spike gushed.

"U no," Pinkie said with a wink.

The little dragon quickly used the Identify spell. The hidden knowledge of what the talisman did sank into his mind and he rapidly relayed what he learned.

"It's alright guys! The talisman did not kill or destroy Starlight, it just banished her. This is the kind of rare item that can be used to remove a character permanently from the game! That is, until we use special spell or another rare item to summon her back!"

"Wouldn't that require a high-level spell like Wish Fulfillment?" Rainbow Dash asked. Four sets of eyes slid in her direction. She reacted defensively. "What!? Pinkie's not the only who can read ahead in the manuals! I just wanted to know what the best spells and moves were so I could try to use them later! Unfortunately, I'm not a spellcaster."

"No, but we have a great one here with us," Discord said, giving Spike a playful punch to the shoulder.

"You really think so?"

"Yup!"

"Of course!" Pinkie said, after spitting out the rest of the talisman shards.

"Look here Spike, nobody blames you for us getting stuck in this game," Rainbow Dash said. "If some idiot ponies were selling this dangerous book for anyone to buy, somepony else could have gotten stuck here and not be awesome as we are! They might not stand a chance! And we do appreciate that you wanted to spice up the game experience, make it cooler and all, but next time just let us in on what you're thinking of doing."

"By the way, I have been meaning to ask if I can lead the next campaign," Discord added. "I think I have a few ways of getting the storyline with the princess and the Squizzard to finally move ahead and not be so stale."

Spike could hardly help it. Tears welled up in his eyes and he gave his friends a round of hugs. It meant a lot to him that despite everything they were going through nobody blamed him for their predicament. And it was relieving to know that they were all united in beating this quest and escaping.

Rainbow Dash held up the two bracers and said, "Now that we have these, I think we should reevaluate which monster we go after next. Right?"

"What happened? What went wrong?" Twilight fretted as Starlight came out of her trance and wobbled away from the door.

"I got ejected from the game," she answered, holding her head to try and stop the world from spinning. Her eyes still rolled in their sockets. "I finally had a chance to talk to the others when this crazy minotaur showed up and used a magical item on me to blast me away. I didn't die, I think. I was just removed from the game."

"Oh awful! Why would the minotaur do such a thing?" Fluttershy asked.

"I wouldn't dine to try and understand the minds of those brutes," Rarity said dismissively.

Starlight answered quickly, "When I entered the game I was not allowed to interact with our friends until they brought me into the story. I understood it, but I don't why I understood that rule. It just was."

"Could you say that again and much slower?" Twilight asked, a pen hovering over a blank sheet of parchment before her.

"The important thing here is that the campaign Spike and the others are stuck in will not allow outside help unless it fits within the overall story. So we can't just sneak our way in. You were right Twilight, only I had a chance of getting us in because Spike had made a character for me."

"Does that mean we rolled up these new character for nothin'?" Applejack asked.

"Not quite," Starlight said. If we can find another way for my character to become part of the story, we might have a chance. And because I was stuck in a stinky tavern waiting for them to talk to me, I overhead a lot of useful information. I think I can piece together what is happening in the story."

"Then do begin," Twilight said, her face determined and pen quivering.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Follow the Ruin

Where the city of Bitson had once been, there was only now a deep gouge tearing through the center of petrified ruins. Earth ponies with morose looks on their faces chipped away at the fossilized damage and removed the remains of their loved ones. Statue after statue of terrified ponies were lined up outside the city, placed in the long grass. Spike could see right down to the blade where the cockatrice's deadly beam had turned life to stone.

"This is going to be tough," he muttered to himself.

The party had inspected what they had taken from the minotaur and judged that with the bracers they might stand a chance to defeat the gigantic cockatrice. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were adamant that they save any other city from falling prey to the boss monster and that with their new loot they might stand a chance. However, given the sight before them, Spike was worried that they might not pull it off.

"Pinkie, pluck up a plucky tune if you will," Discord said.

"One mega hit for brightening up the mood after the apocalypse coming right up!" she cried. The Bard got right to work, playing an encouraging and fun-loving tune.

Discord waltzed up to the nearest survivors and asked in his most uncondescending voice, "My dear ponies, can you please tell us what exactly happened here?"

"What do you think happened! The Cockatrice came through and destroyed everything!" one pony wailed, collapsing into a heap of mane and tears.

"Crank it up Pinkie."

Pinkie began dancing around the survivors, giving the exuberant tune her all. The ponies could only stare at her, stunned and dumbfounded. Discord continued plying for information, walking over to two ponies carting out another petrified citizen.

"What can you tell us about the Cockatrice?"

They dropped their package, shattering it on the ground.

"It was huge!"

"It was terrifying!"

"It turned everything to stone that it looked at!"

"And then blasted everything with a steady stream of fire!"

"GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The two ponies took off at a sprint.

"We're not getting anywhere," Discord groaned, walking through shattered remains. "I mean, anyone could have surmised so much! It's a boss level monster!"

"Anything we can do for these ponies?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"They're not even responding to my music! Did I roll too low?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking shocked and confused.

Spike shrugged and said, "I think that if we defeat the boss then everything and every pony who was petrified should return to normal. At least, that is what I think should happen."

"Yup! Cockatrice's abilities go when they do," Big Mac put in.

"Then let's go and beat the snot out of that Cockatrice Boss and free everyone," Rainbow Dash declared.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to pegasus. Their pupils contracted and deranged grins spread across their faces. Dash suddenly realized that she had said something that she probably shouldn't have. It felt like the crazed faces were pressing in from all sides, despite the fact that no pony moved a muscle.

As one, they all began laughing. Pony after pony fell to the stony earth and weakly gestured at Rainbow Dash, giggling to themselves. Who were these idiots to defy a destructive god?

"Seriously! We're going to do it," Rainbow Dash insisted. This only elicited more insane laughter.

"And I thought I was the funny one," Discord grumbled.

"Nope!"

"Thanks for your vote of confidence, Sir McBurns!"

Spike gestured to the others and said, "Come on, there's nothing that we can really take away from this scene. They're sadly all mad. That means that we should hurry to do what we can to break the Cockatrice's hold over this land."

Rainbow Dash snorted, dissatisfied but she still followed them out of the destroyed city.

The gang figured that if they kept to the deep grove that the boss carved into the earth it would be easy to track the monster. The followed the path of destruction right through a small collection of hills that had been blasted apart. Just beyond them was a small forest, not populated with petrified trees and woodland creatures. Discord remarked that it was a good thing that Fluttershy did not see any of this.

"Are you kidding?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "We could totally use her powers right about now!"

"Powers? I didn't know she had any besides being totally sweet and adorable," Discord replied.

"You mean she's never used the stare on you?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"The stare? What, you don't mean-"

Pinkie fixed the draconequus with an angry, wide eyes stare. Discord shuddered a little and then muttered, "Oh yes, that thing. Well, no. I have never done a single thing that would get on Fluttershy's bad side, let alone cause her to use a move as drastic as that!"

"Yeah right," Spike said, rolling his eyes. Big Mac nodded in fervent agreement.

"What!? You don't believe me?"

Instead of answering directly, Pinkie asked the group, "Did you think I did it right? I think I almost got it. I've been practicing."

"Why you practice something so menacing?" Dash demanded.

"Because she wants to boss around poor souls who haven't done a single thing wrong in their entire life," Discord moaned. After a glare from the rest of the group, he quickly amended, "Well, nothing bad since reforming anyway."

Spike and Big Mac shared a meaningful look, but they dropped the topic.

Rainbow Dash said, "I'm sorry Pinkie. That try might have been good, but it wasn't Fluttershy quality. It definitely, um, needed to be 100% more scary."

"Darn," Pinkie complained. "And I had been practicing so hard, too! I once got Gummy to freeze up with fright!"

"Gummy does next to nothing," Spike pointed out.

"That's only when _you're_ looking," the pony corrected him.

"In any case, I think it would be most advantageous for us to discuss what we are actually going to do when we find said boss monster," Discord said.

They left the forest behind, talking about what Spike had learned about the bracers. He needed to cast Identify to learn more. The bracers were capable of absorbing nearly any spell. However, they had a one-time use when it came to spells in the higher levels. They all agreed that mass petrification was a much higher spell than what any of them were able to cast. Spike was also unsure if the bracers would be able to reflect absorbed spells, like mass petrification, or if they would seize up after taking in so much power.

Big Mac suggested that they use only one bracer to distract the Cockatrice and then slash out its legs from underneath it. That kind of plan had worked already on the Windigo and the minotaur.

Rainbow Dash said it would be best to use one bracer and reflect the petrification right back at the boss; give it a taste of its own medicine. Then all they would have to do would be push it over and watch it shatter under its own weight.

Discord theorized that they would have to use both bracers to absorb the attacks, and that they would freeze up. But by taking out the petrification beam for a long enough time, he could blind the Cockatrice and then they could chip away at its HP.

Pinkie Pie suggested that they use whipped cream pies to blind the boss so that they would not even have to use the bracers! She then lamented the fact that she had not spent more time in town getting the stuff she needed for her party cannon.

Spike was unsure of how to proceed. All of his friends had brilliant ideas. Even the pies could work under the right circumstances, but they were going up against a towering cockatrice that had taken out entire cities! This was a boss that was meant to be a TPK. He had personally refrained from creating any such situation that was entirely hopeless, but this campaign was meant to grind them up and spit them out. They would be lucky to get away alive.

He mused over the options as they came to a small river. Sure enough, the bridge that should have been there to let them ford was demolished. However, he caught onto a detail that intrigued him.

"It's times like these that I love that I have wings!" Rainbow Dash said happily.

"I thought you always loved that about yourself?" Pinkie said.

"Yes! But I love that awesome fact even 20% more in these instances!"

"The water doesn't look too deep," Big Mac observed.

"And get my socks wet? What kind of uncultured curds are we?" Discord demanded.

Spike walked up the bank and poked the ground with his staff. "Hey guys, can you check for me, is the ground under the water petrified?"

Pinkie happily leaped into the water and splashed around. "Nope! It's all soft mud here!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Dash asked.

Discord clapped Spike hard across the back. "You brilliant dragon! No that is a GM's eye to detail, I tell you! Why, it's pretty simple my dear Dash: See how the Cockatrice blasted and destroyed everything in a straight line? Every blade of grass within its gaze has been turned to stone. Even the bank and its mud. BUT! Everything under the water is untouched."

"So? It could have blinked."

"Nope!" Big Mac gestured to the bridge. What still stood of the structure over the river had been turned to solid, grey stone.

"Exactly," Discord congratulated. "This means that water has some kind of repelling property to it when it comes to mass petrification spell that the boss relies on!"

"Great, now we just need to carry a river with us," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "Or a lake."

Spike grinned wickedly as he said, "No, we don't need any of that when we have a pegasus and these two bracers!"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on everyone, let's huddle up and I'll tell you my plan," the wizard said excitedly.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Boss Battle: Cockatrice

The party crested another series of destroyed hills to find the Cockatrice roosting in the blasted remains of another village. Night was falling and they needed some time to rest. Rainbow Dash however stole ahead and did her part in their upcoming plan. They were all feeling very confident in the scheme Spike had concocted. When the Cockatrice woke up the next morning, everything should be in place to take it down once and for all.

Still, they took turns at watch that night. They did not want to the massive beast to surprise them in the middle of the night or get up too early and wander off. Discord took the first watch, but it was Spike's turn after midnight when Rainbow Dash finally returned.

Tiredly, she reported, "It took a little time. There weren't as many thick clouds in the area as we had hoped. I've got them all clustered together off to the east. I should be able to wake up with them at first light."

"Excellent, Spike replied, suddenly feeling too excited to sleep when his watch was done.

Rainbow Dash yawned before saying, "We'll only get about a minute's worth of rain before the clouds dry up and scatter. I'm not sure if that is going to do a lot for us."

"It should give us enough time to make sure that thing is restrained so we can make our move and finish it off," Spike assured her.

"If you say. I'm off to catch some Z's."

"Good luck. See you in the morning."

She yawned again and waved goodbye in reply. Spike couldn't wait for the sun to rise and for their plan to finally got into action.

As the sun finally rose, Pinkie played them all a powerful and ennobling song with her flute. The golden flute was supposed to put its targets to sleep, but now it roused them to full strength. There were glints in the boys' eyes; they were excited and ready to get going. Big Mac, Spike and Discord were veterans at this game and they were ready to get to work. This was the kind of battle based around a crazy and bold plan that made the game of Ogres and Oubliettes so worth it and so memorable!

"Wow! That song turned out super well! I was kind of scared that I might put you all back to sleep," Pinkie said.

The others shrugged off that comment, ripped and ready for a fight. Spike pointed over the trees and said, "Look!"

True to her word, Rainbow Dash was pushing along a large storm cloud that blocked out the rising sun. She was bringing it around to hover right over the Cockatrice who was also getting up. It broke up the rest of the town and flapped its wings, screeching to the sky. It belched a torrent of flames and scorched the unpetrified earth before it.

"Hurry, we need to get there when Rainbow Dash arrives," Discord urged.

They ran low and Spike used a wind spell to throw up smokescreen of dust, just in case the Cockatrice turned around. All four of them glanced up at the sky, keeping an eye on their rogue. They could barely make out a small, winged pony relentlessly pushing the storm forward.

The boss lumbered along its predetermined path of destruction, squawking and flapping. A putrid stench came on the wind and made the party tear up. But even Pinkie managed to keep her exclamation under control as they hurried along. Big Mac gave Spike a ride so his tiny legs wouldn't slow them up.

"We might not make it," Discord gasped.

"Hold on! We just need to trust that Rainbow Dash gets the storm right on top of it, and then we can execute the plan," Spike said hurriedly.

The Cockatrice's wide gait nearly took it too far, but then the dark cloud burst. The cluster wobbled as Rainbow Dash bounced on the top and unleashed a heavy deluge. The boss was drenched in an instant.

"Now!" Spike shouted, and he unleashed a lightning bolt.

The already enhanced spell collided with the rain and shocked the Cockatrice from head to foot. It unleashed an unholy scream and wheeled about to face the heroes. Its red eyes flashed, and the petrification began. But the gambit paid off; the rain blocked the spell and made it impossible for the Cockatrice to affect them.

The boss realized this and enraged, it charged forward. Spike reacted by casting the same mud spell that he had on the minotaur. For this much larger beast, it was nothing more than a second's worth of inconvenience. But it was that one second that made all the difference.

Discord fire arrow after frozen arrow at the Cockatrice's feet. Large ice crystals grew rapidly, and the boss stumbled and blinked in surprise at being caught so off guard. It screamed again and stretched itself, trying to get beyond the veil of rain. Spike retaliated with another lightning bolt, zapping the boss right in its scaly face.

Big Mac charged forward, sped along with a tune from Pinkie Pie. He swung his mighty sword and severed tendons at the Cockatrice's legs. The monster screamed and its eyes flashed again. And once again, they were completely impotent against the natural force of the water. It raised its wings and flapped them rapidly, straining against the manacles of ice and trying to dispel the storm.

Spike tried to halt its action with another lightning bolt, but the Cockatrice shook this third attack off. The dragon quickly reverted his gaze to its feet. Even the ice no longer seemed to hurt it, just imped its progress.

"Guys! This boss has a learned resistance!" Spike shouted to his friends. "It might become impervious to spells after too many castings!"

"Then it's a good thing we have our aces," Discord laughed, keeping up the relentless barrage of ice arrows.

The flapping did not have the desired effect, so the Cockatrice bent down and pecked at the ice trapping it in place. Meanwhile, its tail lashed out and knocked Big Mac to the side. Spike cried out as he watched his friend go soaring away.

They had combined as many of their individual plans together as possible, and the initial results were in their favor, but this retaliation was more than enough to remind them just how dangerous this boss encounter was. Spike decided he needed to what he could to buy his team some time. He conjured up another spell and cast a bind spell to connect the Cockatrice's head to its tail. The beast jerked upwards and got slapped by its own tail.

The spell was shattered almost instantly afterwards. It shot another petrifying glare at them and was continuously foiled. At least the rain was keeping up.

Actually…

Spike saw that the downpour was already lessening. Rainbow Dash was hammering as much rain out of the storm clouds as possible, but they were already turning white and breaking away.

Discord was already advancing, keeping up the steady stream of attacks, but he was getting into position to try and blind the boss. The Cockatrice was already back at work to shatter the ice. Its impressive strength was cracking and breaking its bindings. Spike and Pinkie Pie fished out their bracer and charged forward as well.

The boss' tail lashed out to try and whip Discord. The archer was just out of reach. He didn't even flinch as he finally took aim at one gleaming, red eye. The arrow flew true. Until a wing wrapped around and shielded the beast.

And the rain continued to let up.

Spike gulped audibly as he realized their predicament. The Cockatrice could hide behind its wings until the rain stopped and then it could turn them all to stone easily. Its powers were beyond the rules of having to look it right in the eye. This is why it was a boss. Its sheer power and danger were undeniable.

"I've got this," Pinkie declared bravely.

Just then, there was a clap of thunder and Rainbow Dash plummeted through the storm. She slammed with her horseshoes right into the boss' head. There was a loud _ZAP!_ and the Cockatrice reared, screeching. Its eyes blazed once more and that was when Dash activated her bracer, releasing a powerful stream of water.

"Yes! She did it!" Spike and Pinkie shouted together.

The boss shook its head wildly, trying to clear out its waterlogged eyes.

Their crazy plan had worked! Before the battle, Spike had used a waterspout spell and enhanced it with his new crystal. They used the bracer to absorb the attack and stored them until the time was right. The Cockatrice was exposed and reeling from the surprise. Discord took his second shot and this time he punctured an eye.

The Cockatrice howled in agony as its left eye went dark.

"Yes! We now have some field of non-vision to move around in!" he shouted, ecstatic.

"Yeah, but we want to make sure that we aren't outpaced," Spike shouted back as they took off running to the creature's left.

Rainbow Dash delivered another swift kick and sped off. However, that move delayed her long enough for the beast to fix its terrifying gaze upon her. The rogue's shout of horror was cut off as she tuned to stone. She dropped like the rock she was back to the earth.

"NOOOOOOO!" The party screamed together.

Just as it appeared that Rainbow Dash would shatter against the petrified earth, Big Mac appeared and scooped her up with his magic. He stood tall and resolute; his helmet having saved him from the worst of the Cockatrice's attack.

As the party's cries of woe turned to woops of jubilation and relief, they attracted the notice of the great beast. It turned towards them once more, but it did so shielding itself with a thick, leathery wing. They would be in trouble if they got the timing wrong.

Pinkie played a tune of slowing, causing the Cockatrice's movement to stutter for a brief moment. Discord readied his arrow to take out the second eye. Just then, the monster's incredible strength finally broke the weakened ice bonds. Shards of ice went everywhere, and Discord's arrow went too high.

"This is it!" Spike yelled, unleashing the waterspout spell hidden in the second bracer.

The Cockatrice coughed and screeched as it took another face-full of water, rendering its mass petrification once more ineffective. But their tricks with the water were all used up and the creature had learned to be wary, protecting itself before attacking.

"Spike!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

"I-I kn-know," he said shakily, holding up the bracer. They would only have one shot with this, and they were already down one party member.

Once more shielding itself, the boss charged to get in close and finish them off. Now fully mobile, it rushed them hard. The earth shook and Spike fell painfully on his tail. Its wing unfurled with the blast of a hurricane, sending Spike flipping head over heel. His beard got in the way, but he still held up the bracer and activated it.

Red light filled his vision and he felt his body seize up and turn cold. But the sensation passed at the light was quenched. He felt the bracer turn red hot in his claws, the mass petrification spell perfectly captured and straining to be released.

When Spike finally came to a rest, no long spinning, he saw why the light had gone out. Discord had hit his mark a second time. The Cockatrice was now completely blinded. It screeched and raged, tearing at the earth. It still had too much of its HP and with all its physical strength, it could defeat them, even when blinded.

"Every pony get out of the way!" Spike declared.

He waited until the last possible second to activate the bracer's secondary effect. His friends were behind him or far enough to the side. The metal shattered into dust in his small hands and he took some damage. But a beam of red light erupted from the bracer's crumbling metal and hit the Cockatrice square in the chest.

With one last howl, it turned to stone.

The battle was done.

Well, it wasn't over quite yet. Rainbow Dash was still petrified, meaning that the Cockatrice was still alive. Even after a tense moment, the boss was already wobbling, trying to overcome the effects of its own petrification.

"NOPE!"

Big Mac ran with all his might and crashed into the monster's foot. It had been fossilized while thrashing about, meaning that its balance was precarious. The combined strength of Big Mac's days on the farm, his enhanced power as a warring unicorn the adrenaline of battle allowed the stallion to deliver a headbutt that shook the entire battlefield. The sound of the thunder washed over the party and the Cockatrice toppled over.

The party dove for cover as it smashed into the earth and shattered. Bits and boulders flew in all directions. Big Mac used his body to cover Rainbow Dash and protect her form.

Once the dust settled, Dash was returned to her normal state, looking up at Big Mac in bewilderment. She finally let out a sheepish laugh. "I guess I really messed that one up back there, getting cocky and turning to stone."

"Yup!"

"Can we remind you of that the next time we go into battle?" Discord shouted from his hiding place.

"Ugh! You heard that?" she squeaked.

"But of course! How else am I supposed to be the fantastic and incredibly capable Captain Wuzz?"

The tension easing, the party all collapsed into a fit of laughter. They had somehow managed to survive a battle that less than a day before Spike was sure they might not win. But here they were! And defeating the boss had reverted the effects of the petrification! Already, the land was restored and some of the poor ponies in the wrecked village were back on their hooves.

The grizzly remains _poofed_ away and the adventurers found in a neat little pile a small mound of golden bits, a length of scaly leather, a small, white egg and most importantly the black figurine of a cockatrice.

"This is way less than what we got after defeating that Windigo," Rainbow Dash grumbled.

"Ooooh! But there is some good stuff here," Pinkie exclaimed. She scooped up the egg and said, "This is a Wish Egg. If we take good care of it, a magical creature will hatch and bestow a wish on us."

"You mean we might be able to get back Starlight?" Spike asked, excited.

"Eggs-actly!"

"Sweet!" Big Mac said, kicking up his hooves with happiness.

"And, um, the leather?" Discord asked.

"Oh! I know this stuff," Spike said hurriedly. "We can have this stuff stitched together into a Sack of Belonging! We can carry all kinds of stuff with us in this thing! Well, when it's a sack at any rate."

"And at least we still have one bracer left," Rainbow Dash said, retrieving their prize. "I still think that the loot we got after the first boss fight was much better."

"If we had another mass petrification spell trapped in that bracer, we would have been invincible in our nest boss fight," Discord mourned.

"I don't think it worked like that," Spike explained. "When I trapped the boss' gaze I could feel the power straining against the confines of the bracer. It might not have even worked; we're just lucky that it did. It might not have lasted until out next battle."

"Well, where to next?" Discord asked, quickly recovering from his disappointment.

"We go back to that city where they laughed at us and we get a hero's welcome!" Dash declared.

"And what about these guys?" Pinkie Pie asked, gesturing to the shocked villagers.

"We take them back with us," Big Mac said resolutely. "We might not have been able to save everyone, but we can help these ponies out by helping them get supplies and new homes."

The group agreed and went about gathering every pony up and convincing them to return with the party to Bitson. The wreckage left behind was sad and Spike was amazed that anyone had survived in the end. But at least they had stopped a terrible monster from destroying anymore lives. It was a sharp reminder that the game they were in was much darker and crueler than the silly, adventurous tale he had spinning for his friends. And it served as another reminder that they needed to hurry and collect the talismans so that they could confront the Gazer and bring an end to this quest.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Resupplying

The five friends led the bewildered and grieving ponies back to the equally bewildered, but much happier Bitson. The ponies in the ruined city were besides themselves at how their friends and family members had come back after being turned to stone. And they eagerly accepted the new refugees.

To Rainbow Dash's utter delight, the adventurers were hoisted onto many shoulders and paraded around with exclamation of joy and thanks. They finally had their hero's welcoming. Spike did notice that the ponies still acted a little crazed. He figured that their recovery would take more than just one magical day.

"Bring out the cider and food, because this hero is hungry!" Rainbow Dash declared.

As the citizens treated her to her every wish and whim, Spike handed over the leather they retrieved to the surviving artisans and asked, "Could you please stich these materials together into a Sack of Belongings?"

"Sure! And we'll even give you a hero's discount!" they cried.

"Um, heh, it's not for free?" he ventured.

They all glared at him and swept their hooves across their destroyed city.

"Uh, yeah, right…"

Spike didn't mind handing over a few extra bits to help them out. There was so much more that still had to be done to get this place up and running. They were just passing through and had done a great deed. The coins he handed over would be what went further to help these ponies out. Sure, they might never forget him and his friends, but memories fixed few things.

He spied Pinkie Pie bouncing off and talking with other merchants. Her animated way of doing things charmed them and soon she was getting swept away to both broken and fully functioning shops. He wondered what she was getting up to then.

Discord interrupted his musings and said, "Shall we join our roguish friend in some well-deserved revelry?"

Big Mac pulled along side and grinned. "Yup!"

"Sure, come on guys. We'll get the Sack later."

The three friends joined Rainbow Dash. They feasted on overflowing platters of excellent cuisine, threw back mug after mug of cider, and they even got in a dance competition with the deranged survivors. The little wizard made sure to slide out as many coins as possible, helping these poor folks out.

When the sun finally set and Dash has passed out, Big Mac took her to a room they rented and quickly rejoined Spike and Discord as they spoke with the surviving city leaders. Shady Dealings, Pious Marks, and Gorgeous Gems were the ones who had kept Bitson together since the Cockatrice had rampaged through. Shady pulled at an overly greased mustache and thin beard while leering down at the adventurers. Pious sat so stiffly he might have been a statue. Gorgeous made eyes at all of them, making Spike feel a little hot under the scales.

There was still no sign of Pinkie Pie.

"You have all served out realm very well. In these dangerous times, it is good to have reliable warriors who can come through in a pinch," Shady said slowly. "But you have taken advantage of our of our meager hospitality to its very limit. We will have even less food and drink now…"

"I have already paid every pony handsomely for their work and generosity," Spike said, overriding him.

"Have you paid generously enough to make up for what we have lost?" Shady inquired with a knowing gleam in his eyes.

"Wait? Are you blaming us for what happened to you?" Discord demanded.

Shady shook his head in a bemused way. "That blame lies on the Cockatrice. And of course we are vey, very grateful to all of you. However…"

"However, you did not do anything for us at our greatest time of need but allow for one of our own to shatter as you berated our people," Pious said glumly. "And now you come and take advantage of us. We have done the heard work of keeping everyone together, but now you bring even more refugees to our crumbling city. There is no way for us to recover at this rate. And do you think that your few bits will be enough?"

Spike flinched at the demand, but Discord was having none of this. He poked a claw up the statue-esque pony's nose. "Listen here you pathetic miser, this is no way to thank the people who went out of their way to help you. And my good friend has paid you for what you've given us. I would say that all debts are settled. And we never had anything to do with this either!"

"Such a forceful man!" Gorgeous Gem swooned. She was uncomfortable knockoff of Rarity and it made Spike squirm.

"But you haven't said anything about our fallen compatriot," Shady said, smiling creepily. "You will have to pay for that."

Big Mac's blade cut into the table, showing the leaders with splinters.

"Another forceful man, Oooo!"

The knight rolled his eyes and growled, "You want to take advantage of us because you think you hold some moral high ground. I see why they call you Shady Dealings. This is wrong!"

"That's not what the families would say," Shady smirked.

Pious extricated himself from Discord's finger and rubbed his snout, saying, "Precisely. You have all acted without consequences. And as a result, others have paid for your actions. And now you flaunt your successes before us."

"I want them to flaunt something else," Gorgeous said.

"Give it a rest woman! I will not besmirch myself and my Fl- my friends' good will with a floozy like yourself!"

"Nope!"

"Hang on everyone, there is a lot happening super fast here!" Spike said hurriedly.

Shady glowered and said, "Exactly, my good wizard. Things are moving fast because you cannot escape the consequences of your own-"

"HEY THERE EVERY PONY!" Pinkie shouted, crashing into the room. An entire crowd brought up the rear. "There you three are! I've been looking all over for you!"

"We were wondering where you had gone, too," Spike admitted.

"Have you also been getting yourself into trouble, too?" Discord asked angrily as he bore down on the three leaders.

"Yes! I have been in trouble," Pinkie wailed.

Discord snarled and leaped onto the table. "That does it! I may not be the Lord of Chaos in this world, but I know how to make people _suffer_!"

"Stop!" Pinkie cried. "Before anyone suffers, they need to hand over the keys to all the supplies they've been hoarding."

"What?" everyone around the table asked in unison.

The other ponies tromped in and glared at their leaders. One pony that looked like a baker japed a scornful hoof at the city leaders and accused, "Right after the attack they took everything that we had in storage and locked it away! I don't have any more flour to bake with!"

"Gasp!" Pinkie said.

"And they locked away all my extra tools and metal," a burl stallion declared. "They even stashed away my coal for forging!"

"Oh no!" Pinkie wailed.

"And they hoarded all of the rope we could have used to pull out our friends!"

"Oh, the humanity!"

"This one took all my extra bits!"

"This one here said that I was damned because I had not given enough to the church!"

"This one is just too promiscuous!"

The adventurers pulled back and led the citizens crowd the bar and beset their leaders. The smug looks on Pious and Shady were wiped away. Gorgeous looked ecstatic with all of the extra attention. Soon there was a cloud of dust as they were jumped and tied up with whatever the ponies were able to find. A set of keys were thrown to Pinkie who caught the ring with her bouncy mane.

"Alright every pony, let's go get that supplies!"

Seconds later, Spike, Big Mac and Discord were left to themselves. They just stared at each other in utter disbelief. Discrod got down from the table and asked, "Did either of you understand any of that?"

"Nope!"

"Not in the slightest."

"I think we should go up to bed."

"Yup!"

"You said it," Spike agreed.

They made their way up to their rooms and found fitful sleep.

The next day, Rainbow Dash greeted them all with a cheery grin, having missed out on all the strange events from the night before. The others did not feel in the slightest inclined to fill her in on all of the strange things that had gone down. Instead, they made their way downstairs where Pinkie greeted them, as bright and cheery as ever.

At the table was the Sack of Belongings. She informed them that everything had been sorted out and they had everything they needed. In exchange for their help, the good people had baked them free food and that was also in the Sack. She had made a nice nest for the egg as well and had carefully placed it in. And she had a mischievous look about her that bespoke more, but in a very un-Pinkie fashion she did not divulge anything else.

Rainbow Dash was still at a complete loss.

"I think that it is only good and proper then that we take off on the road and find that hydra," Discord said. "Our quest is halfway done, and the momentum is with us! We know where to go next."

"Onward!" Big Mac declared, drawing his sword.

"Hopefully this hydra has better loot that the last boss," Rainbow Dash grumbled.

"There's always something good in the pool of a hydra," Pinkie promised her friend. "And with this magical Sack we can carry it all without busting our backs anymore!"

"Thank Celestia," Spike added. "Alright, everyone, let's be off!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Over the Mountains

The trek uphill was a grueling one. Not only was the slope and the singular path over the Spine Peaks set at a ridiculously steep angle, but there were tentacled monsters that lashed out at the group. Their vile arms could burst from the smallest crevasse and they were extremely strong. And their reach was long enough o even pluck Rainbow Dash out of the air.

"I've had enough of whatever these things are!" she complained loudly, kicking one tentacle back into its hole. "Spike, can you deal with this one, too?"

The little dragon came huffing and puffing over, releasing a fireball down the hole. A creature deep inside screeched. Noxious fumes and smog assaulted their faces and they both pulled back hacking and coughing.

"Gross! And you still don't know what they are?"

"Sorry, but I don't!"

"There was nothing like these things in the monster manual," Pinkie shouted as she resolutely and tirelessly bounced her way up the path.

"H-Homebrew," Big Mac wheezed.

"What?" the rogue asked, confused.

Spike explained, "Homebrew is when the GM decides to add something different that's not even in the rules or manuals of the game. These things could be different classes, spell, items, or in this case, monsters."

"Sounds like cheating to me," Rainbow Dash huffed.

"It's a way to make the game interesting for veteran players, or to add a new spin onto things," Spike said patiently. "It's just another way for players to use their imaginations and collective storytelling to make the campaign more fun and varied. Otherwise, the game might not be quite so fun for others after they've played it forever."

"Oh, that makes reasonable sense," she agreed.

BOOM!

Discord unleased another flaming arrow down and a hole and then scanned the mountainside. "It's so strange. Caves are usually connected labyrinths, especially when there are so many chasms and holes like there are around here! But there is not a single puff of smoke, scream, or explosion that comes out of the mountain whenever we attack one of these things. Could this entire mountain be alive?"

"I hope not," Big Mac said as he sloppily sliced away another protruding tentacle.

Pinkie was far ahead, easily dodging each and every grasping arm. She giggled and taunted them as she leaped out of the way and wove the arms into intricate knots. Whatever creatures were up ahead, they were being immobilized through the bard's silly dealings. Whatever magic made Pinkie who she was came in handy when the team needed to keep their enemies off balance.

If only there was a truly good way to weaponize that. Discord continued to mourn that he didn't have his powers, otherwise this would be a much easier journey. He also complained that it wasn't fair that Rainbow Dash still held all her Pegasus traits, when he didn't. The others pointed out that he could still fly and float, to which he had replied, "Oh please, this is merely a trivial frivolity!"

The one who was really slowing them down was Spike. His small gait was not enough to let them all move at their regular pace. And no one could carry him while having to dodge and deal with all these snagging arms.

"Come one! I can see the summit straight ahead!" Pinkie called out to them.

"It looks the same as always," Spike complained.

"What if we tried tunneling through?" Discord suggested. "Surely you have a spell for that. Or we could widen one of these holes and hope that it leads to the other side. That might be where all the extra explosions are being channeled."

"You do have a point," the dragon conceded.

"No way! I am! Not! Going through! Some stinky! Tunnel!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she delivered multiple kicks, sending the tentacles reeling.

"Yup," Big Mac said tiredly as he cleaved through the recoiling arms.

"Let's just book it to where Pinkie is. She has all those arms tied up anyways!" The rogue gestured with her wing to the mass of tentacles and Pinkie bouncing happily atop them.

"Fine! Don't want to go on an adventure? I guess I can understand that," Discord said snidely.

"Come on guys, we shouldn't be fighting each other," Spike said tiredly. "We're just exhausted from the trek and all this constant fighting."

"And no reward, too," Discord grumbled.

They finally made their up to Pinkie and crested the exhausting slope. The summit was almost too thin for a single pony to stand on. They all spread out and sat down for a moment to catch their breaths. Big Mac was quickly roped by a hidden tentacle and a quick fight ensued to save their friend.

"That does it!" Rainbow Dash screamed once they sat back down. "I've had it with this stupid mountain!"

"From up here you can really see why they call these the Spine Peaks," Pinkie said.

"And from down in the valley you couldn't?" Discord asked, annoyed.

"Well, you could if you tried real hard. It was like the spine or back of an eel! But up here you can see each individual peak and the road that connects each one. And they're more like the spines on a porcupine!"

"I think I envisioned a large dragon's spine," Spike said.

Big Mac tapped the stone underneath them and asked, "What kind of peaks do you think these are?"

"Annoying," Dash groaned.

"Nope, I mean what do you think their story is? Back in Equestria we have all kinds of stories to explain why something is where it is, or why it is the way it is, and so forth. These are called the Spine Peaks for a reason. What do you think is their story?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it," Pinkie said.

She stooped down and inspected the mountainside. She chipped away at it with her hoof. Next she licked the stones. She hemmed and hawed to herself as she tapped the earth next. She then laid flat down and listened. The others just watched her and wondered to themselves what in Celestia's name was she up to.

Pinkie finally stood up erect and proudly declared, "We are on top of a massive, fossilized beast!"

"Not more petrification," Rainbow Dash moaned.

"No, I think whatever this creature was it died a long time ago and became the mountains! That's both awesome and kind of sad to think about! What was this creature? How did it die? And how did these icky things get into it?"

"Maybe it was a massive hydra's body?" Spike suggested. "Or a dragon!"

"Or a seas serpent when this place was underwater thousands of years ago!" Rainbow Dash added, suddenly perking up now that magical petrification was out of the running.\

"Or maybe it was a Nimcropulous-Rex and this is just one of its many arms that reached across this world at the dawn of time! And when it died, its body fell and shattered the original continent and gave shape to this entire land," Discord said dramatically.

"Uhh," everyone said in unison before laughing.

"Whatever it was, I'm glad we don't have to fight it," Big Mac said.

"Don't jinx us," Spike pleaded.

"Think of the loot, though!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly.

Pnkie shrugged. "I thought we were looking forward to looting the hydra's pool when we defeated it?"

"But think about how much power and items this boss monster must have had!"

"Speaking of boss monsters, we should figure out how we are going to dance the Tango with the hydra. Monster experts, what should we know about hydras in Ogres and Oubliettes?" Discord asked.

Spike thought for a moment, was beaten to the punch by Pinkie Pie. "Oh! Oh! All hydras begin with three heads; however, they are not very smart. Which is good for us! Each head has the ability to breath a small bit of fire, but what is really deadly at first is the poison that they have in their fangs. We would have to whip up some antidotes, and what we got for the forest will definitely not be enough!"

"That and if we are not careful and cut off a head, that one severed neck will sprout three more heads and that is where the hydra becomes really dangerous!"

"Even more than before?" Rainbow Dash asked excitedly.

"Super duper waaaay more than before!" Pinkie said seriously. "The new heads gain new abilities, like spitting lightning, coughing up acid or smokescreens, and some of them might even cast spells from their mouths. Nearly every dangerous thing that you can think of another monster in Ogres and Oubliettes doing, the hydra is capable of with enough heads!"

"And they will try to get you to cut off the heads, even if you try to avoid that," Spike warned.

"Guess I won't be of help here, then," Big Mac grumbled.

"No, you won't be a problem at all," Spike said encouragingly. "Because we need to get to the body of the hydra; that is its weakest point. The best way to kill a hydra is to take out its heart, but those are deep underneath the scaly armor protecting its body. But with your heavy sword we could carve our way in there."

"Like when we made it big and used it to kill the minotaur?" Discord checked.

"Exactly!" Spike replied. Big Mac began brightening up.

"But we don't know how many heads the boss will have when we get there, right?" Rainbow Dash mused. "Which makes it really hard to plan for anything, really. We could just find three heads and then we distract them while Big Mac skewers the monster and POOF! It's all done! Or we might get there and find 30 or more heads waiting for us!"

"That is a problem," Discord agreed. "However, engaging all the heads and bewildering it is a good idea. I can shoot my bow really fast and Pinkie can use her magic to confuse them. We might be able to deal with tons of heads if we coordinate well enough."

"It's worth a shot," Pinkie agreed happily. "I even got some stuff in town to make my one-pony show even more AMAZING!"

"Is that what you were so happy about earlier," Rainbow Dash asked.

"Not quite," Pinkie said sinisterly. "But trust me, you'll love it when you see it!"

"We trust you Pinkie," Spike assured her.

"You'd better, because I am our best hope at making it out alive when all this goes down!"

The others all shared looks before Discord stretched and said, "Well, I think I've had enough resting. I'm good for another bout with these nasty tentacles!"

"Yup!"

"And it's all downhill now," Spike said gratefully.

"There's still a ton of them," Dash groaned, gesturing at the tentacles already flopping about in the air.

Still, they pushed on and cleaved their way through the unknown monsters. The downhill slope was just as steep, but it brightened their mods considerably. The party cut through this next batch of obstacles with much greater speed and good humor. They even cracked jokes as bits of tentacle went flying into the sky.

As they descended, the day became dimmer. On this side of the Spine Peaks the sun could not as easily reach them, and despite their good humor there was a strange coldness than now hung over them.

Though it was unspoken, their glances grew more wary and their bodies began tensing. Sharp nods and curt direction took place of their jibing and jokes. There was a serious presence this side of the carcass-turned-mountain range. And as they drew closer to the foothills, they spied pools. Dark, cold pools that were unnaturally still.

The site of their next boss encounter was before them.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Boss Battle: Hydra

The air smell metallic as they finally entered the foothills. The party stayed close together, feeling unseen eyes watching their every move. Coming off the Spine Peaks was so strange as the unyielding rock gave way to marshy soil. The party found themselves slipping every other step or so. The grass was slick and soil soft. Mists began to rise from the stagnate pools.

"This is definitely one of the creepier places we've been," Spike said with a shiver.

"The sooner we get out of this mess, the better," Discord agreed. "These conditions are absolutely atrocious for my precious bow!"

"How will we know which pool is the hydra's?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, we'll probably know right when we're on top of it," Pinkie squeaked happily.

"Probably."

The finally ventured down into the cold mists, Spike using his staff to make sure that they didn't step right into one of the obscured pools. Rainbow Dash used her roguish skills to try and pierce through the silence, detecting any noise that might give away where the beast slumbered. But there was only an oppressive silence. The entire area was devoid of life and sound.

"This is a special kind of eeriness that I must remember for later," Discord finally said. "Loud noises and nonsensical fun can be fun and all that, but when you really want to unnerve someone, silence is key. Let me commit this to memory. I think I can create the perfect scenario that will drive Twilight simply nuts!"

This drew a lot of irritated and angry looks from the rest of the group. He hastily waved them off, saying that it was all in good fun and that he was only joking. Though Spike did here him grumble, "Can no one take a bad joke?"

They continued poking around. Spike found two different pools. At first everyone tensed up, preparing for battle, but there was nothing. The water dripped unnaturally loud from Spike's wetted staff, but otherwise not even the wind made a whisper.

"Arg! Just come out and fight us already!" Rainbow Dash screamed in desperation. "Let's just get this battle over with so we can kick your butt and be on our way! We're already halfway done with the quest!"

"I don't think it works like that Rainbow Dash," Pinkie giggled.

"And I don't see any pony else coming up with any brilliant ideas other than wandering around in this thick fog!"

"Mist," Discord corrected.

"Whatever! If we just keep poking around at this rate we won't find a thing!"

Big Mac asked, "Can you use your wings to try and beat the mists away?"

"It's not that easy. It has to be thicker stuff. But I guess I can give it a try."

Rainbow Dash settled down on the grass with an unsettling squelch. She dug in her back hooves and began beating her wings furiously. The mists did not budge even a little. The rest of the party was hit with a solid blast of wind, but there was nothing else. They all shared spooked looks.

Spike finally clapped himself on the forehead and said, "It has to be magical! No mist, especially this thick, should stand up to Dash's abilities! This has to be a spell meant to bewilder us."

"So?" the pegasus asked grumpily.

"That means," Spike replied with a grin. "That I can use a detect magic spell and determine the properties of this mist. I can even trace them back to their original source. And if this is indeed where the hydra is supposed to be, my guess is that we will find the boss at the sending end of these magical mists!"

"Oh! And then we can pummel it!"

"Exactly!"

"Then what are you waiting for, silly? Cast that spell! Cast that spell!" Pinkie Pie chanted.

Spike quickly got to work, gathering himself to cast the important spell and figure out the origins and nature of these bizarre mists. His staff shone with a strange, orange light in the thick vapor. He closed his eyes and concentrated. When he next opened them, he saw a dark-blue haze mixed with the mists.

"It's as I suspected, this is the result of a high-level spell. It's supposed to confuse us and obscure our vision. It's pretty strong; I'm not sure if I can right away dispel it."

"But did you figure out where the origin of the spell is?" Discord asked excitedly.

Spike focused and he followed the haze. The mists might not move, but there was a sense a movement to them, like a very slow stream. He followed the slight flow around a nearby hill and saw the haze bend that way.

"We need to go in that direction," Spike said, pointing. "I'm not sure if the hydra is right there, or someone else. So we should proceed with caution."

The group agreed and they followed Spike. Big Mac stayed at his friend's side, ready to protect the little wizard at a moment's notice. As they turned the corner, Spike saw the haze shift and move behind another hill. He indicated that they still had a ways to go and the group followed his lead. As they went, the air became thicker and harder to breath. Even Pinkie Pie found herself slowing down.

"Is this another spell?" Rainbow Dash coughed.

"No. I think it's just the nature of this area. The land here is sick," Spike said. "Whatever the hydra had been doing here, it hasn't been good for the land."

"Is that Gazer having us commit random acts of good and clean up the land of vile beasts?" Discord asked wildly. "There has to be better ways to get that done than trick and blackmail a group of adventurers to do his bidding. I mean, we would have taken on that kind of a quest had he just asked politely!"

"No, that Gazer definitely has something more sinister in mind for us," Dash grumbled.

"Yup!"

"I was being rhetorical," Discord deadpanned.

"The energy is getting stronger over here!" Spike informed his friends. "Everyone be ready! I think we could be facing the hydra soon."

They rounded the second hill and found themselves at the edge of a steel-grey pool. The surface was like glass, pristine and undisturbed. Very cautiously, Spike lowered his staff and tapped the surface of the water. It barely rippled.

"I don't like the look of that," Pinkie groaned.

"I think we've found the place," Spike said. "It feels wrong right here."

"Let's back up and then you can throw a lightning bolt in and zap that boss monster to kingdom come," Discord suggested.

The others nodded in agreement and they stepped back. As they did so, the ground shook and the was a deep groan. It sounded like it was coming from all sides. The hills began to sink, and the ground became even softer, sucking at their feet. Rainbow Dash yelped and took to the air. A horrible gurgling sound came from up ahead, but still the water did not shift.

"What kind of a hydra is this?" Pinkie asked.

"Lightning bolt!" Spike shouted, unleashing his spell right into the depths of the pool.

The spell seemed to vanish the moment it touched the water's surface. The sounds grew louder and the hills sank deeper in. Spike realized that he was sinking in faster. He shouted with fright, but Big Mac pulled his back. Pinkie bounced on the top of the roiling grass and mud while Discord finally took to hovering. He had his bow pulled back and aimed it as the pool ahead.

"Watch out!" Rainbow Dash cried out.

The others looked up to see her dodge out of the way as a massive, dragonish snout snapped to try and swallow her whole. They barely breathed a sigh of relief before something heavy and large slammed into all of them, bowling to them over to their right. Spike ended up with a face and beard full of mud as he got up, trying to wipe the gunk from his eyes.

ROAR!

He saw another large mouth shooting out for them and he cast up a shielding spell. The creature slammed into it, cracking the barrier, but thankfully not breaking it.

ROAR!

This time the sound came from the left. The team all scrambled as fast as they could to avoid another massive mouth trying to ensnare them. Up above Rainbow Dash was dealing with a total of three heads trying to snatch her out of the sky.

ROAR!

"Guys! We're surrounded by the hydra!" Spike shouted.

"No! We've been walking on the hydra!" Pinkie screamed.

A glance around told him that she was right. The reason why the hills had sunk was because those had been where the hydra's head were buried underground. It was a behavior that Spike had not anticipated. By walking into the foothills, the party had not just proverbially but literally walked into the maw of danger.

The other pools in the area broke and water rushed to wash the adventurers away. Big Mac somehow managed to stand his ground. Spike and Pinkie Pie just barely caught a hold of their friend in order to keep themselves from being washed away. The steel-grey pool seemed to suck everything in.

As Spike looked that way, he finally saw one massive, snarling face emerging from its depths. Its eyes sparked with devilish magic. He quickly did the math on what he was able to see. This hydra had no less than six heads and one of them it appeared was more than capable of casting high level spells.

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! We're so dead you guys," he panicked.

"Nope!" Big Mac snarled. He swung his sword and broke on of the head's fangs as it streaked right for them. The beast howled with pain and backed off.

The magical head coil and then struck, spitting lighting right back at them. An arrow zipped right between there heads, also charged with electricity. The hydra's devastating spell rebounded, the arrow and all the energy taking it right in the mouth. It was shocked backwards, and the other heads were all pulled back.

The mists broke like shattering glass.

"Oops! I'm sinking deep now," Big Mac said hurriedly. "Help me!"

Discord made his way over and Rainbow Dash swooped down. It was difficult in the marshy land to haul their friend free from the muck. Trying to save Pinkie and Spike he had slipped pretty deep into the mud.

The earth shook and they barely managed to keep themselves right as the hydra drew itself up to full height. The stared up in awe at the majestic, horrifying beast.

This boss monster was like the Cockatrice, massive in scale, but there was more to it. Its body was covered in mud and grime, but it was armored with thick, horned scales. It had four clawed feet that tore up the marshlands around it. And it had a total of eight heads. They all towered over the party and glared down viciously.

"I think we're in trouble," Spike said, his voice breaking.

"It's way more heads than we were counting on," Pinkie observed.

"More heads!? It's way bigger than what we were expecting either!" Rainbow Dash screeched.

Discord drew back his bow and boldly declared, "Don't lose heart fair friends! We haven't lost yet! We can still defeat this beast!"

Spike was wondering with just what they could defeat this monster when he remembered the minotaur's bracer. He wheeled to Rainbow Dash and cried out, "We need you to use the bracer! Fly up there and get the heads to use their breath weapons on you! If we can gauge the other's powers, we might be able to use them against the head that can use magic!"

"Which one is that?" Dash shouted back, taking immediately to the sky.

"The third from the left!" Spike called back.

There wasn't time for anymore words as the hydra stomped forward and the heads attacked. One spat out noxious fumes and another spat scalding hot water at the group. Another head blasted fireballs at both Rainbow Dash and the party down below. Two tried to snatch her out of the air.

Discord fired a quick volley, but the boss' hide was too strong and repulsed his arrows, even the more powerful ones. He yelped and quickly got out of the way. The marshlands continued to tremble as the hydra pulled itself after them. Spike used his sinking spell on the beast's feet, trying to sink into the swamp, but it resolutely plowed forward.

"I'm down too low! I need to get up!" Pinkie shouted.

"What!?" the other three shouted, but before they could protest further, she sprang onto the face of head striking out at them.

The heads descended and snapped ferociously at the three boys, forcing them to run as fast as they could for cover behind the hills that had not collapsed. The fumes from before were affecting them, however, and making them dizzy. Spike threw up a barrier to shield them. It was shattered with one fireball blast.

Discord searched through their supplies to find some medicines they could use to try and regain their faculties. The hydra would have smashed them all flat right then and there, were it not for two different distractions.

Rainbow Dash had done just as Spike had counseled and used the bracer to intercept the different breath weapons. One of the heads breathed out hurricane-like winds. Dash just managed to absorb them into the bracer. She then turned them on one of the heads trying to snag her from the side. The powerful gale made the head stop in midair and its lips were pulled back, the eyes watered, and then it was thrown backwards. The fireball spitting head came for her next.

She caught the fireball and rebounded it right at the spellcasting head. It created a shield and protected itself. It then spat beam of black energy at her. She figured it was best to not waste the bracer on one powerful spell and easily dodged the attack.

"You've obviously never fought a Wonderbolt before!" she bragged.

The hydra roared in frustration. But then one head began drooping. The rogue looked down and saw her friend playing the golden flute right into the ear of one head. Its eyes were slowly shutting, and the head lowered to the marshlands. The hurricane spitting head turned to attack Pinkie.

"Oh no you don't!"

Rainbow Dash sped to intercept the attack, just barely avoiding getting crushed in two different sets of jaws. The bracer captured the strong winds and she redirected them at the gases that were besetting her other party members. The poisonous fog was blown away.

In response the magical head shot another blast of lightning, aimed right at her. A lightning arrow flew to counter the attack and whipped the spell right back at the caster. This time the head dodged the attack, quickly learning for the party's tricks.

Pinkie finally got one head to rest on the ground. She motioned with her mane for the others to follow her. The boy had crammed their mouths full of healing herbs, and jolted to clarity with meds, they charged to take advantage of the situation. The rest of the hydra noticed.

More scalding water poured down on top of them. Spike called out a spell to Discord, who pulled back his magical bowstring. Ice arrows and a powerful ice spell managed to turn the boiling cascade into a solid block of ice. Big Mac shattered it with his sword, preventing it from taking out Pinkie or waking up the other head.

The bard gestured for them to hurry and climb up the long neck. They obliged and Spike rode on Big Mac's back, firing spells at the heads to keep them at bay. The head that blew toxic poisons swooped in to dose them, its eyes gleaming maliciously.

Rainbow Dash fell out of the sky and unleashed a stolen fireball right into its maw. A reaction was triggered, and the head's mouth and face were ruined in a terrible explosion. It wobbled in the air for a moment before falling down. Two heads screamed and charged to rip the dying head from the rest of the body.

"No! It's going to grow three more heads if they succeed!" Spike shouted.

"On it," Discord said bravely, and he threw himself at the two heads, landing on the third dying one. He got up close and loosed a devastating barrage of arrows into their eyes.

Half of the heads were now out of immediate combat. Pinkie was playing furiously to keep the one head asleep while Discord managed three. Rainbow Dash was doing her best to keep two different heads occupied. This left two for Spike and Big Mac to tangle with, and one of them was the magical head.

It leered down at them and began casting blasting spell to try and fling them off its body. Spike hurriedly cast counter spells, but as unable to give backup to his friend. The second head attacked from the side and tried to swallow them.

Big Mac grabbed his sword with his teeth and used his horn instead to boost his own jump. He leapt out of the way, barely avoiding getting his hooves caught in the smelly, jagged teeth. He came down hard on one glinting, yellow eye. The hydra roared and whipped about, launching the two friends high into the sky.

Spike recognized their chance and shouted, "Big Mac, I'm going to enlarge your sword! Direct it right at the hydra's backbone! Sever it!"

"Got it!" Big Man replied, his voice muffled by the sword.

He spat out his blade and took control of it again with his horn. They were now eye level with the magical head. It snarled at them and opened its maw to unleash a devastating spell. Spike kicked off of Big Mac and the knight soared towards his target. Spike then cast the enlarging spell on both stallion and sword.

"YUP!"

A beam of black energy consumed Spike and it took all of his fortitude to keep concentrating on the spell.

Big Mac fell with the force of a meteor. He aimed his sword true and it slammed into the hydra's back, the first attack of theirs to actually penetrate the thick scales. He then crashed into it with his forehooves and drove the blade deep. The hydra heads all let out a scream that was quickly cut off.

The boss didn't even totter, but pitched forward and slammed into the marshlands, crushing a hill under its tremendous weight. Big Mac shrank and he took a bad spill along with Pinkie Pie and Discord. Mud, water and filth sprayed up into the air and threw up a haze of ruin.

Everything was quiet and unmoving. The swamp returned to its prior stillness for a minute. And then-

"Gasp! We can please fight a boss next time without causing collateral damage or without laying waste to everything," Discord grumbled pulling himself free of the mud.

Big Mac also extracted himself from the marshlands, feeling weak. His sword returned to its normal size but was lodged deep in the body. He gave a feeble "Yup," before stumbling away from the boss carcass.

Pinkie bounced her way out of the mud, somehow not badly hurt. Still, she said, "I think we are all going to be very sore in the morning!"

"What are you talking about? I'm sore right now," Discord protested.

The boss finally _poofed_ away and the marshlands sand into a wide, deep ditch. But before the party could investigate the treasures they had won, Rainbow Dash flapped her to them, carrying a blackened heap. She had tears in her eyes.

"I found Spike," she sniffed. "He got flung all the way over there by the hydra's black magic beam. I tried to catch him before he crash-landed. His staff and crystals were totally turned to dust. He's not moving or replying to me!"

"Quick I might have something for him," Pinkie shouted, rummaging in the Sack of Belongings. She hauled out a dozen potions and washed the little dragon in them. She tried spilling some into his mouth, but his body remained blackened and shriveled.

"Let me have a look at him," Discord said, taking Spike away from Rainbow Dash. The pegasus sat down in the mud and wiped away her tears with her wings.

"What's wrong with him," Big Mac asked, scared.

Discord focused and turned his friend over. "He's not dead. He's been cursed. It's a really heavy one, too. We would have to find something to lift it."

"Maybe there's something in the loot," Big Mac said hopefully dashing into the pit to find anything that could work.

He found five treasure chests full of golden bits and beautiful gems that Spike would have loved to eat. He found fine cloaks, a sword of adamantine steel (his own was twisted into a heap of metal), a white staff with a new gem, and a bunch of other neat items, but nothing looked capable of removing a curse. Except for maybe the staff, but no one else in the party could cast spells like their wizard!

Big Mac returned, crying and feeling like he had let his friend down.

"He helped us win," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "He sacrificed himself to enlarge me and my sword. That's how we won."

"We can't give up! No one start singing his eulogy just yet!" Discord snapped.

"I couldn't sing now, even if I tried," Pinkie sobbed.

Rainbow Dash held up the bracer and said bitterly, "If I had tried to intercept the attack! It would have destroyed the bracer, but we would still have Spike! He's worth more than this stupid thing!"

The archer suddenly brightened up and asked, "Can I see that?"

Dash handed it over to Discord. He began rubbing it up and down Spike.

"We know that these things the minotaur had are pretty powerful. They could absorb and rebound the petrification spell that the Cockatrice used on us. And _that _was a very powerful bit of magic! By that same logic, this should work!"

Slowly, and to everyone's wonder and delight, Spike returned to normal. His body unshriveled and began looking healthy. The charred bits and black stuff were absorbed into the bracer. Discord muttered under his breath about them growing hot, but he persisted. He kept rubbing Spike down until his little friend was restore to normal.

In fact, Spike looked like his normal self now; the beard has been scorched away entirely.

The little dragon suddenly sat up and groggily asked, "Who hit me over the head with a house?"

Everyone cried out with joy and hugged Spike. He yelped in excitement and pain, but they did not pay attention. They had their friend back.

"Ooo! Ouch!" Discord exclaimed and he threw the bracer away, waving his burnt paw. There was a tremendous explosion.

"What happened? Did we win?" Spike finally asked.

"Yes," they all said together.

"Thanks to you," Big Mac added, so glad that his best friend for guys' night was alive and well.

"You sacrificed yourself in an ultra brave, super cool way and helped Big Mac slay the hydra," Pinkie said really fast. "But you got blasted by that one evil magical head and we thought you were a goner until Discord told us that you were actually just cursed, and then he used the second bracer on you to rub away the curse and now we now longer have any magical bracers, but we have you back! Yay!"

"Wow, all of that?" Spike said, blushing.

"Yeah! You did it Spike!" Rainbow Dash congratulated.

"I've got to step up my game, you're stealing my thunder," Discord said slyly. "Well, enough mushy stuff. Let's find out what we've all earned for defeating that horrendous boss!"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Finding the Chimera

The party made out very well in terms of loot.

By defeating the hydra, they were now wealthy beyond anything they could have imagined. They had enough bits to buy a ship, or a bakery, or a tavern. Rainbow Dash was beginning to see never-ending barrels of cider waiting for her. They also had plenty of gems which they could turn into more coins, or just let Spike eat at his leisure. All of this was stashed into the Sack of Belongings.

Aside from all the money they now had, they had found plenty of upgrades. The cloaks Big Mac had discovered were weatherproof and could camouflage them in nearly in any environment. The big stallion also found impressive suits of armor that had been stripped from dead warriors who had tried to slay the hydra. He also took the adamantine steel sword.

Spike took the staff and its powerful gem. He could now cast even greater spells, but he felt that he could use with a new wardrobe that would designate him as a wizard. Discord for his part found a new bow, that when strung with the magical bowstring he had, could create even more varied and more powerful arrows than ever before. And he would never run out!

Pinkie Pie found a set of drums that when played would allow her to cast high level spells for a bard and still hold other enchantments to buff her friends and debuff her enemies. Rainbow Dash found a black sash that she could use to become one with the shadows and go about undetected. She said that she wanted to be called Shadow Dash from now on, though the name didn't quite stick with the rest of the party.

For a battle that had nearly cost them a dear friend, these treasures were fair compensation. And of course, there was the small, black figurine of a hydra. They carefully placed it with the other two in the Sack of Belongings.

"You know, with all of this great stuff, we should be able to take down that Gazer without getting the fourth talisman, just saying," Rainbow Dash offered.

"Nah, I think it would be best to make sure that we hold all the cards before going and dealing with that old eyeball," Discord replied.

"Why? We would be playing right into his… Well his… His eyeballs tentacles-things!" Dash retorted. "We could just be making him way more powerful!"

"That's the risk," Spike agreed. "But if that minotaur we fought is any indication, the Gazer has a way of keeping tabs on us. That means that he would prevent us from getting to the Squizzard's castle, or worse, if we deviated from the quest."

"Annoying," she harrumphed. The rest of the team agreed with her on that part though.

They finally moved out of the marshland to plan what to do next. They were rather bemused to consider that they had not checked with the magical map since the beginning of their quest. They had used information and clues to figure their way around the bosses, but now they needed solid intel.

The map indicated that the chimera could be found in a series of ruins all the way back in the direction from whence they had come. It was a unanimous decision to go around the Spine Peaks this time. After a few days of foraging in the woods and beating their own path, they stumbled across a small city and decided to rest.

"You know guys, if we bought a tavern-"

"Or a bakery!" Pinkie added.

"Or that," Rainbow Dash said, though she didn't sound as thrilled about it. "We could have our own place to always return to after we come back from our adventures in game! It would be a sweet way to get more bits, have some fun with the locals, get information on new adventures, and just have a nice place to stay when we want to rest!"

"Hmm," Big Mac said.

"OR! If we get a bakery, we would be able to bake all kinds of sweets and goodies, that we could sell to make every pony happy and make some money! Ponies would come from all over to buy our goods and they would tell us stories about where we could go on adventures! And we could still have our own beds upstairs or something like that!"

"Hmm," Big Mac said.

"But think about all the cider we could have!"

"Hmm!"

"But think about all the cupcakes we could have!"

"Hmm!"

"Or how about a boat for high seas adventures," Discord added. "We could travel around the world, crossing sword and spell with scallywags, find untamed lands, discover deep secrets and rescue fair maidens!"

"How about a farm?" Big Mac asked, getting excited.

Everyone turned to him, aghast. But then they all laughed.

Spike laughed along with the rest, though he wasn't sure if his party should go and buy a tavern or any other place just yet. They still had this quest in front of them, and when they were done here, they could hopefully return to rescuing the land from the Squizzard and helping Princess Shmarity.

It was all a reminder of how much the party and friends had grown through their time in the game.

Spike spoke up and said, "Hey guys, once we find a place to stay, let's ask around and see if anyone knows anything about these ruins. We want to make sure we are entirely prepared for anything before we get there. We don't want a repeat experience like what we had with the hydra!"

They all agreed, and Pinkie reminded Spike that they should also go shopping.

After booking their rooms at the nicest inn (As even rainbow Dash admitted, you have to treat yourself sometimes), they went their separate ways to conduct some errands. Pinkie Pie left Spike at a boutique to get some nice wizard robes and a hat. She then bounced off happily whistling to herself. Discord, Big Mac and Rainbow Dash went to stock up on the best potions in town. After experiencing the terrible poisons from the hydra, they were not eager to have a repeat of that. They also inquired after rare magical items that could be of use to them.

They bought exploding ball bearings.

Once they had done that, they restocked on provisions so that they would be able to make the next leg of the long trek without too much difficulty. And with the Sack of Belongings, they could haul enough to feast for days!

For his part, Spike was really happy with his choice in apparel. He went with flowing green and purple robes that had clasps for his new traveling cloak. He got a matching hat with an intentional patch and a crook in its peak. He thought to himself that he struck quite the dashing wizard. Even his white stubble looked dignified, as his beard defiantly grew back

Pinkie retrieved, him, carrying a bulging sack over her shoulder, but she would not say what was in it. The moment they met up with the rest of the party, she said that they should all carry on without her and she took the Sack of Belongings with her. The others gave her retreating figure curious looks but returned to the map.

"While we were out, we did some asking around," Discord told Spike. "We discovered that the chimera is waiting for us in the Ruins of Aagloo."

"Bless you?" Spike ventured.

"Aagloo," his friend chuckled. "It was once a mighty city, complete with advanced plumbing, underground networks, a colosseum, and all the amenities. However, it long ago became abandoned when great horrors invaded and took over the place. It now lies in ruins, gutted. But travelers say that the old ways into Aagloo are still open and that monsters emerge from the depths under the city."

"You know what this means," Big Mac said, a fearsome glint in his eye.

"Yes," Spike said excitedly.

"No," Rainbow Dash replied, confused.

All three guys turned to her and said in unison, "It's an Oubliette Dive!"

"A what?"

Spike happily explained, "In Ogres and Oubliettes there are these really tough dungeon areas. These are the oubliettes for which the game is partially named after! They go deep into the earth and you have to fight your way through the different levels, solving different riddles and puzzles, and battling your way through rare and spooky monsters! If you succeed in an Oubliette Dive you are usually rewarded with great treasures!"

"And if you fail?" Dash asked.

"Then it's game over," Discord said, running a finger across his throat.

"So, we have to go through a series of creepy dungeons with big monster and dangerous puzzles to get out way to the boss, who is probably sitting on a mountain of treasure… What are we waiting for!?" she exclaimed.

Starlight was thrust back from the door to the map room once again. Her friends all sighed and plopped down in the hall, obviously frustrated and losing hope. Outside, the sun had moved beyond its zenith, but there was still plenty of time left in the day.

"What went wrong this time?" Applejack asked, exasperated.

"There was no good place for me to enter the story!" Starlight snapped, feeling extremely frustrated. "I was able to enter the same old tavern again before I was thrown out by a magical portal. The same one that keeps coming for me. But I managed to hang around long enough to learn that a group of adventurers defeated the unbeatable Cockatrice and save the realms from its rampaging."

"Oh my! The poor thing," Fluttershy gasped.

"Yeah, I'm not going to lose any sleep over a towering monster that petrified and blasted everything in its path," Starlight grumbled.

"Do you think these adventurers were Spike and the others?" Twilight asked, looking frazzled.

"I didn't catch any names of the adventurers themselves, but the other ponies did refer to them as the troublemakers and the Furious Five."

"The Furious Five," Twilight muttered, jotting that information down. "There are five of them in the game."

"And they apparently caused some kind of trouble with that dreadful minotaur," Rarity sighed.

"I think it's safe to assume that the troublemakers and the Furious Five are our friends," Starlight said. She then informed them, "The last any pony heard of them, they were making their way over a mountain range called the Spine Peaks. That place is supposed to be infested with monsters, but also be a barrier to keep back an even greater horror."

The friends all exchanged worried looks.

"You managed to get a lot of good information and hearsay out of those ponies," Applejack finally said.

"It's a tavern. Apparently in these games everyone in taverns want to talk about stuff important to your quest," Starlight replied wryly.

"Well, it's convenient for us," Twilight said. "But that still leaves the matter for how we are going to get into the game! How are we supposed to link up with through their story if you keep getting sent back to the tavern and we can't enter without you or the others bringing us in!?"

Starlight mulled it over for a moment, thinking about everything Spike had told her about the campaign. A lightbulb came on in her brain and she gave Rarity a smug look.

"We do have a way in. Though it will require Rarity."

"Me? Why me?" the other unicorn asked, suddenly sounding nervous.

"Because we've been going about this backwards. We're trying to catch up with Spike when we've already had a way in this whole time. Rather than trying to be where they are now, or where they could go later, I think we should meet up with someone who could take us to Spike and the others," Starlight explained.

"And how in the name of Celestia do we do that?" Applejack asked.

"Simple, I go back to the Squizzard."

"The who?"

Starlight placed a hoof on Rarity's shoulder as realization dawned on Twilight's face. "Sorry Rarity, but this is going to be a little uncomfortable. And awkward."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Oubliette Dive

Charting a ride upstream, the party followed a large river up the Ruins of Aagloo. Happy to rest their feet a little more and make good time, they reached the city's crumbling remains in four days' time. Pinkie commented on how it was lucky that they could make it so easily and quickly around the whole map without too many random encounters like they had with the squirrels, the minotaur, and the tentacles. The others tried to shush her up before it was too late.

Five minutes later they had to fight off a murderous bad of merfolk.

Sloshing up onto the shore, looking back at the sinking ship, Rainbow Dash scowled and said, "Can we please not jinx ourselves when we are this close to beating the final boss? Please!?"

"Oops, I guess the hole in the ship's hull was kind of my fault," Pinkie said sheepishly. "Still getting used to these drums and everything."

"I think she means that you could stop bringing up the lack of encounters that we've been enjoying," Discord said, wringing out his hair. "We don't want to incur the undue wrath of the great Game Master in the sky, or whoever controls this land."

Spike was wringing out his won growing beard as he said, "You know, I've been wondering about that. The last time we caught any word of the Gazer and his quest for us, it was by examining the minotaur. I wonder if he's held off because we were going through the quest just as he wants but punishes us if we jinx ourselves or try to deviate from the path."

"That sounds highly complicated for a monster who could collect his own tokens, thank you very much!" Rainbow Dash snorted.

"Gazers aren't _that_ powerful, though," Pinkie protested. Big Mac nodded vigorously. "We got caught off guard and were in a bad position. Gazers are at their most lethal when they catch an adventuring party unprepared. They use their disgusting eyeballs to cancel out our abilities and then rely on their minions or traps to finish you off, unless you are unlucky enough to get hit by one of their more powerful attacks.

"But if you know what you are getting yourself into, a Gazer can be defeated. And we have a ton of awesome weapons and supplies to help us out this time!"

"I like your optimism," Spike said. "I agree, I think we can defeat the Gazer pretty easily once we have all four figurines and return to the Squizzard's castle to confront him. But we don't want to put ourselves at a disadvantage when we are so close to our goal."

"Like that?" Big Mac asked, pointing over to a rock golem tramping in their direction.

"Ah! It gives me a chance to try out one of my new tricks," Discord said, whipping out his bow. He pulled back the string and a massive harpoon that glowed red hot appeared in his bow. He released it with a blast of air.

Enraptured, they watched as the harpoon hit its mark. At first, nothing happened. But then the golem began to turn red hot and exploded from the inside. BOOM!

"Holy Celestia! When did you learn to do that?" Spike exclaimed.

"You know, I figured that since this was a magical bow, there had to be more to it than just helping me create more arrows. I've spent some time talking with it, and while it doesn't quite have a voice of its own, it was more than happy to communicate an idea or two to my mind. And We've been built up quite a friendship since!"

The bow quivered, as if responding happily to Discord's words.

"Neat!" Spike said.

"Yup!"

"Arg!"

Everyone turned to see a singular zombie pony lumbering towards them. Rainbow Dash gave a condescending grunt and sped by the zombie, a knife in her mouth. There was a flash of a rainbow and the zombie took three more shuffling strides before it pitched forward. Its head slid cleanly off the rest of its body.

"That was easy," she bragged.

"Arg! Arg! Arg!"

Three more zombies staggered out of the ruins. Spike squinted and could see the shadows od dozens more coming.

"I think we had better keep ourselves moving. Let's find the Oubliette."

The party skirted along the riverside, Keeping a wary eye on the ruins. The zombies resolutely followed after them. Dozens soon turned to scores, and scores soon turned to hundreds.

"I thought you said they said these ruins were abandoned!" Rainbow Dash complained. "How can there be so many zombies?"

"It happened a long time ago. They might have forgotten some stuff," Big Mac suggested.

"These ponies are more than just some stuff," Discord deadpanned as he launched volley after volley of flaming arrows. The fire eventually consumed each target, but unless the archer took out their brains they continued to shuffle onward.

"ARG! ARG! ARG!" the undead chorus chanted.

Zombies with armor were beginning to show up. The party would soon be surrounded by potentially a thousand of the undead and with no boat to take them to safety. Spike conjured up two barriers and made a small corridor in the throngs of undead. They dashed through the crowd, Rainbow Dash observing from above.

"They just keep coming!" she shouted.

"Do you see any large opening in the ground? One where there might be a gate or prison bars, or something?" Spike called up to her.

"Yeah! Directly ahead! I'll go check it out!"

"No wait- Arg, whatever!"

Once past the barricades, Big Mac used his sword to clear the way and Discord provided backup by knocking down zombies that got to close to reinforce their friends. Spike and Pinkie used their spells to blast away the zombies who gave chase. But even as they fell by the dozens, there were still hundreds to take their place.

"Keep running," Spike encouraged.

They dodged past solitary walls, jumped through crumbling windows, leaped over mounds of fallen buildings, and narrowly avoided holes where even more zombies were emerging. It appeared as if an entire kingdom had been zombified!

"Hey guys! The gigantic grate over the hole won't budge and it looks locked! But there is a guardroom; I already cleared out the guards. We should be able to enter it and find a way down."

"Or get pinned trying," Discord grumbled. He shook himself and said, "Anyways, onward fellow adventurers!"

Working together they reached the massive pit. There was a wall raised around it with a grate of bars set over it with ten large locks. It was as if giants had come and personally sealed whatever was down there. And there was no time to figure out the locks with the zombie hordes catching up to them.

"One of us couldn't have been a cleric, could they?" Spike asked out of frustration.

"You know, if Fluttershy were to play, she would make a fantastic cleric," Discord said happily.

"Can I charm the undead?" Pinkie asked, bouncing lithely out of the way from gasping mouth and swinging, undead hooves.

"Not the best time to experiment!" Big Mac grunted.

"Every pony this way!" Rainbow Dash shouted, landing at the door to the guardhouse. She had to buck away a zombie crawling to nab her.

They threw themselves in, one right after the other, and Big Mac shut the door. He used his horn to pull down the latch and board across the door, locking it. He used his magic to hold everything in place. Spike was about to say that it was good luck that this small stone building had stayed up for so long when the stones and mortar began tumbling in. The zombies were chipping away at their defenses!

"I can hold it for a little while!" Big Mac grunted. "Find us a way out of here!"

"Right here," Rainbow Dash said, using her tail to sweep away a layer of filth and grime that covered a trap door.

"I'll stay with Big Mac and play him an encouraging tune," Pinkie said helpfully, strapping on her one-pony band equipment.

"Thanks," the stallion said.

Discord opened it carefully. No traps were activated, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Spike led the way down an ancient ramp, using his staff to illuminate the darkness. The ramp plunged downwards and curled to greet and compliment the oubliette's ow design. About two stories down, they found a long hallway with a slight downgrade. It was made up of tiles with all different kinds of symbols.

"Hold on," Spike said, hold up a clawed hand. Before him were images of mountains, animals, suns, stars, rivers, waterfalls, and skulls among many more pictures. He detected magic and saw that the entire hallway was filled with it. "It looks like this is some kind of puzzle that will activate if you step on certain tiles."

"Activate how?" Discord asked.

Spike tapped one tile that bore the image of the sun. Hoping that Celestia's icon would bring him good luck, he leaned into it.

"Gotcha!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she pulled Spike back from getting consumed in a pillar of fire.

"Woah! Thanks Rainbow Dash," he said gratefully.

"No problem!"

"Hmm, the tile shattered," Discord observed. "All of these tiles could be meant to take effect. But it's just a one-time thing."

"Yeah, but there are gazillions of tiles!" Dash pointed out.

Big Mac's strained voice came down to them, "Having any luck?"

"Not really!" They hollered back.

"But I am!" Pinkie shouted from above. "I think I have it figured out. Big Mac, open up the door please!"

"NO!" everyone shouted.

"Oh well then. Oopsies!"

There was the sound a wall collapsing.

"ARG! ARG! ARG!"

Pinkie Pie's music turned from that of encouragement to her golden flute playing a happy tune while the drums started beating. Big Mac cried out in surprise and the others barged up to help their friends. What they found were zombies with pink light glowing from the dead eyes and they were moving in time and rhythm to Pinkie's new song.

The bard winked at them.

"She actually charmed the undead," Spike said, awed.

"We can't doubt her for a second, can we?" Rainbow Dash asked hollowly.

Not knowing what to make of this sudden miracle, Big Mac released his hold on the door. He undid the locks and pushed the door open. The entire zombie horde was dancing to Pinkie's music. A plan started formulating in Spike's mind.

"Pinkie! Use your music to guide the zombies down the ramp and into the hallway!"

Pinkie's mane gave him the thumb's up and she played harder, staring down at the entrance to the subterranean world. The zombies happily shuffled forward and filled the hallway, tramping towards the tiles. They were soon greeted with sounds of raging fires and waters, the roll of thunder, the cracking of the earth and the howl of terrible winds.

More than a thousand zombies danced their way down below the guard house. The rest of the party did not follow, even after the horrible sounds ended. They wanted as much space between them and the undead as possible. The gang met up and Pinkie finally stopped playing.

"Whew! That took a lot out of me! How long was I playing for?"

"Who knows! But you cleared the hallway with that quick trick!" Spike said excitedly.

"Just please give us more warning before you go experimenting," Rainbow Dash pleaded. "Even if it did just save our lives."

"Okie dokie!"

"Arg!"

"There's still more of them down there, but not as many as before. We can take them when they're all lined up," Discord said with relish.

"Wait! Before we do that, let's use the zombie to scout out any other traps ahead," Spike suggested. "Pinkie, can you keep playing?"

She took a swig of water from a canteen in the Sack, and then replied affirmatively, "Yes I can! Let's get going!"

Thus, with a grizzly host of undead ponies, the adventurers set out into the depths of the oubliette. The long hallway's tiles had been utterly obliterated. There were no traces of the carnage but a strange, burnt smell hovered in the air. They quickly pressed further in and met the undead horde, still numbering nearly a hundred.

Spike was happy that the idea had come to him, otherwise they might not have survived the first trap! But it made him worry about what was next.

It turned out that the next series of traps were pretty standard: floors falling away to reveal pits of skies. The zombies filled these and made pathways to walk over. The next trap were walls that slammed together, flattening the undead into paper. A sticking spell kept them in place. Then blades fell from the ceiling. Rainbow Dash used her skills to catch these blades and disable them.

The undead horde dwindled but danced resolutely forward. Pinkie began looking flushed at playing for so long, but she was the party's best hope at progressing without doing too much damage to themselves.

At regular intervals they found small windows that opened up into the shaft of the oubliette proper. There was a ghastly blue light that emanated from below and it reflected off the stone walls. Spike could see other windows far down and guessed that they still had six levels or more to go before they got to the bottom.

"I think I am finally understanding the wisdom behind this particular oubliette," Discord said. "There is a powerful chimera that has been trapped down here. The grate makes it impossible for the beast to get out, but there is shaft. People trying to get the monster out would have to either unlock the gate or descend beneath. If they stayed topside, they would have to fight the army of the undead, that golem, and probably many more creatures.

"So, most adventurers would take the route of descending into the oubliette itself, but they would encounter all of these traps. The traps wither do them in or weaken them enough so that they can die at the claws and teeth of the chimera! Or, should the chimera try to force its way out of the shaft, it will encounter all of these traps and be stopped."

"I think you're right," Spike replied.

"But how does any of that help us out?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Discord shrugged and said, "It doesn't really, but that's not the point. The world of the game becomes more interesting when its story and its mechanics make sense and are used to help enhance the story and its experience."

"I just like defeating stuff," Rainbow Dash admitted. "I mean, I'm looking forward to some real puzzles, so this oubliette better not let me down! But I like this game for its action."

Spike chuckled and thought to himself that there would always be players like her, those who were in it for the adventure and the thrills rather than the story and the character building and camaraderie. Though Rainbow Dash had been a stalwart friend for this whole adventure. She didn't stand for loyalty for nothing, after all!

But her words did get him to wonder what kind of traps and puzzles were still to come. False doors, blades, and crushing walls were fine and all, but after such a devastating hallway of magical tiles, this couldn't be it? Could it?

The answer came just up ahead, where the entire line of conga-dancing zombies tripped yet another trap. The ceiling just above Spike pitched downward. He stumbled back with a cry, getting his friends to pile up behind him and Pinkie Pie. There was a weird jiggling sound followed by the sound of something peeling and sucking.

"Gross," he muttered under his breath. He then gasped as a large, round, blue ball of slime plopped onto the ground and rolled after the zombies. "It's a Slime Ball!"

The Slime Ball rolled at high speed and ran over the zombies, sucking them into itself. As it did that, everything down to the bones were absorbed into the creature's clear, gelatinous form. It kept rolling down the hallway, gobbling up each zombie to the last.

"Whew! I hate to see them go, but I need some more water and breath of air," Pinkie exclaimed.

Spike carefully inched forward and looking up the slide that had opened up in the ceiling. There was thankfully nothing else up there. He then surveyed the tunnel. The Slime Ball had filled the entire thing, providing no means of escape should it come after them.

"Okay guys, that creature is one of the deadliest in the entire game! It absorbs and devours anything down its bones. And once it has those bones, it can give short life to the bones with its own ooze and use the bodies of its victims to fight. It probably rolled to a stopping point and then it will slowly crawl its way back up here."

Rainbow Dash checked the slot and shouted, "Hey look! A key of some kind!"

It was a heavy symbol that looked like a maze. Spike guessed that with a Slime Ball in the oubliette, the barrier would have to have no crack or hole, otherwise it would eventually slide through and run amok in the rest of the dungeon.

"We might need that for when we're done with this thing," he told her. "Come on, we have to stop the Slime Ball before it gets back up here. It will probably reset the trap when it does."

They charged forward and found the Slime Ball laboriously crawling away from a solid barrier with a matching hole to Rainbow Dash's key. It undulated as they approached and slowly brought the bones of its victims forward, reassembling them to become minions.

"Any tips on beating a Slime Ball?" Dash asked.

"Use magic!" Spike and Pinkie shouted together.

Using her drums, Pinkie conjured a ball of pure energy before her and shot it out into the Slime Ball. Spike used ice magic, freezing it in place so that they could get in more attacks. The blob most absorbed the damage. It didn't even register that it has been hit. The bones spilled out, held together by the slime.

As the ambled forward, Rainbow Dash and Big Mac laid into them, tearing them apart. They scattered the bones so that the slime couldn't latch back and bring the bodies back together. Doing so caused the slime to pool and slowly evaporate. The rogue then rolled some of her exploded ball bearings into the Slime Ball. They exploded as it ate them, but still it did not show any sign of stopping.

Discord was not to be outdone, and he used his bow to conjure up powerful arrows that tore into the Slime Ball. Eventually, it ripped itself free from the ice and reached out for the bones. Big Mac and Rainbow scurried to pull them away and out of the thing's reach. It had become noticeable smaller, but it was not defeated yet.

"We've got to keep this up!" Spike encouraged.

The Slime Ball was finally blasted to smithereens halfway back to its holding chamber. It splattered and nearly washed over them. It quickly evaporated this time, filling the space with a noxious odor. They pulled up their cloaks to ward off the miasma. Rainbow Dash hurried to open the door and them spilled into the next room.

"I feel spent," Pinkie gasped, her tongue lolling out.

"Here, we have something for that," Discord said. He fished out potions of recharging and magic restoring to everyone.

Big Mac closed the door with a sharp click! There was a grinding sound up above and spike protruded from the ceiling. They began moving down as a slow pace.

"Well, at least we aren't going to be smashed to death quickly and painlessly," Discord muttered dryly.

"Hey look! A puzzle! At last!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

The rest of the group hurried over to where she was. Before them lay a strange statue that was in pieces. The different pieces were connected in strange ways through chains, hinges, and even by magical bonds.

"What is it supposed to be?" Big Mac wondered.

"Let's see," Rainbow Dash said, hurriedly arranging the pieces together. In a blur they all fit into an unrecognizable creature.

"I may be the Lord of Chaos, and even I have no idea what this is supposed to be," Discord said with a frown. The ceiling began descending faster. "I think it reacts to each time you get this puzzle wrong."

"It is wrong, but I see a head. Maybe a lion?" Dash mused. She speedily rearranged the pieces. It was another terrible monstrosity. "Psh! Got it! I can't believe it took me two tries!"

"Um, no, I think it's still wrong," Spike said worriedly as the ceiling picked up its pace again.

"No, no! I mean I know what this is now! A chimera!" And just like that, Rainbow Dash assembled the statue in ten seconds flat. A terrifying chimera with a lion, goat, and dragon for heads appeared in between her hooves.

The ceiling did not stop moving, but a stairway slid open just behind them, going deeper into the dungeon. They quickly sprinted, though with a glance Spike saw that the spikes were still a far way off. Once they were all in the next room, the staircase slid back up and became the new roof.

"You know, whoever designed this place did not count on some pony as fast as you, Rainbow Dash," Spike said.

"Thanks! But where are we now?"

They were in a perfectly square, stone cube with a faint light gleaming off the crystal fragments in the stonework. All that stood out was an inscription in one wall. Discord went and inspected it. He scoffed, "This is a simple trap. Pathetic really! We are meant to suffocate unless we can solve this riddle right here."

"What is it?" They all asked him.

"It doesn't matter," he grinned, rolling his eyes. "all that matters is that the answer is Tuesday."

He snapped his fingers and the wall with the riddle written on it melted away, revealing a dark tunnel. The cube's crystals did next to nothing to illuminate the mysteries beyond. Spike held his staff aloft and used its gem to light the way. Before them unfolded a wide and deep stairway. It was all painted black. There was an ominous feeling in the cold air.

"When you said that they call this Oubliette Dives I was expecting us to parachute into this hole," Pinkie laughed, the darkness not bothering her. "But this still delivers! We just keep going down, down, down!"

"Yeah, and it's kind of fun," Rainbow Dash said, her teeth chattering slightly. "We should do more of these, but let's find the ones that are a little cooler."

"Cooler?" Discord asked, his breath pluming before him.

But Spike understood and he winked. "At least 20% cooler, got it!"

Continuing their descent, the party walked a long way down the painted staircase. They noticed something stirring in the shadows, but whenever they tried to exactly locate it or pin it down, the shape disappeared. Spike got anxious and he slowed down, checking the stairs, explaining that maybe the darkness was meant to distract them from tarps. However, there were no other traps. It was just unnerving.

At the bottom of the stairs there was a circular door made of black metal. It had a keyhole, but there was no evidence of a key anywhere. They spread out searching, Spike summoning small glowing orbs to help his friends out. It was then that he caught the small shadow once more out of the corner of his eye. It was speeding right for Big Mac.

"Big Mac! Watch out!"

The knight went rigid and he gurgled. His eyes widened and then rolled back before the whites became black. A deranged grin came over Big Mac's face. He then turned to his friends, black magic spilling out of his horn.

"Now this is the body I want!" Big Mac said in a deep, grinding voice that did not belong to Spike's friend. "I can take down two if not three of you before you are forced to kill your own friend. And there is no way that you will be able to get out alone. Checkmate!"

Pinkie Pie started playing her golden flute. She tried to play her possessed friend to sleep. However, Big Mac laughed darkly and used his horn. Pinkie's wonderful flute completely melted. She cried out in surprise as Big Mac drew his adamantine sword. It turned pure black and started growing, growing spikes along its edge.

"You don't stand a chance against me!"

Rainbow Dash tried to come around Big Mac, but was blocked by a black, magical shield.

"Magic _and_ strength! An unbeatable match!" the shadow gloated.

He took a step forward and then jerked. His eyes widened and Big Mac's body began convulsing. Darkness leaked out of his mouth and the shield wavered, the sword returned to normal.

"No way! This can't be happening!"

Spike jabbed a claw and said, "Ha! Big Mac is just as reliable as his sister! He wouldn't turn on a friend if they were in need! You might have just made the worst decision!"

"Yeah, you should have gone for me," Discord laughed.

The others gave him a wary glance.

"Impossible! It can't be over this quickly! Noooooo!"

Big Mac's eyes shone brightly, and he coughed up flames. The darkness within him and around the entire hallway disappeared. He kept coughing and then spat out a two-sided key. It was all over in an instant.

"Blarg! What just happened to me?"

"You just beat something that was trying to take you over! And melted my flute!" Pinkie shouted.

"Sorry," Big Mac mumbled.

"Not your fault at all!" Discord said, pulling his buddy into a side hug. "Your resilience and loyalty are legendary! You defeated that monster with sheer willpower! Try that one for size!"

The stallion smiled embarrassedly. Rainbow Dash scooped up the key and inserted it into the door. The lock ejected the key and rolled to the side, revealing the next room. A horrible sound of drilling grinding reached their ears as they saw what traps were in store for them.

It was a spinning room of blades. It was impossible to make any of them out. Not even Rainbow Dash could just fly to the other side. In the whizzing whirlwind of blades, they caught glimpses of a barred door on a platform just beyond their reach. However, the rogue made an amused noise in her throat and tossed some of her ball bearings in.

BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!

The spinning stopped and the room came to a standstill. Sword and axes made up the entire room, moved by some strange engine. There were planks hidden among the various blades and the party reasoned that these were supposed to align and let them cross over the door. With some fenagling and a little magic, they moved the room into position so they could all cross. The second side of the key Big Mac had spat out fit perfectly into this door.

"Do you think we're getting close to the chimera?" Pinkie asked.

Looking down the next set of stairs and seeing a blue light down at the bottom, Spike said, "I think we've made it."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Boss Battle: Chimera

The party carefully climbed down the stairs. There was a doorway carved into the wall and peering just beyond it they found a large, blue glowing orb sunk into the earth. Atop it was a chimera. It shared the head of a lion and a goat's head on his shoulders, with the long neck and head of a dragon for its tail. It had wings like a bat. And it was very awake and looking in their direction.

"Come inside," it invited. Three voices blended together to form its speech: the deep, guttural voice, of the dragon, the bleating, high voice of the goat, and a soft, but rich voice from the lion. "You have made it this far into my prison. Congratulations. You are the first. I would like to see my liberators before I take my next meal."

"I think he means us," Pinkie said in a too-loud whisper.

"Shhh!" The others said.

"I can hear you. I heard your entire descent actually. And I can smell you. Please, don't show rude manners when I am in such a good mood."

"Well, at least this boss is polite," Discord muttered.

"And good of hearing, too,' Spike whispered.

"What do we do?" Big Mac asked.

Spike quickly asked about the strange light that had been intriguing him since he saw from higher up the oubliette. "What is that magical orb you are sitting on? Were you imprisoned down here to guard it?"

"You're going to ask me question while not showing your faces? How rude," the chimera simpered. "But why not, I'll answer you these two questions if two of you were to show yourselves. Is that agreeable?"

Rainbow Dash pointed to herself and Pinkie, nodding vigorously. Spike returned the nod and shouted, "Deal! Two answers and two faces!"

"Excellent!" the voices shouted, sounding delighted. "I was imprisoned down here before the Treasure of Gulg the Magnificent sunk down here. I sit atop a receptacle that holds amazing treasures from the ancients. However, an apprentice of Gulg's took his creation used it for the nefarious purpose of taking in the life of the kingdom above. Once he had it and destroyed Aagloo, he tossed it down here, where it grew with the powers it had taken. I sit atop the life and vitality of an entire kingdom!"

"Is that how every pony up there became zombies?" Spike asked.

"That is another question! First, I must see your fine faces!"

Rainbow Dash rushed in and flew out of the boss' immediate range. Pinkie jumped just beyond the threshold and put on her entire band getup and began playing. The chimera regarded them both with suspicion. The dragon's head followed the rogue while the lion and goat leered at the bard. The goat's head began bleating loudly, cancelling out Pinkie's music. The chimera slunk forward, its eyes full of hunger.

Spike readied a spell and Discord summoned two massive harpoons rimmed with electricity. Big Mac readied his blade. The time for the fight was now, but the chimera was still talking. It was obvious that it was as desperate for someone else to talk to as it was to devour them.

"To answer your question," the lion's head purred. "The apprentice's deeds were very likely the reason for turning all those poor ponies and converting them into the undead. And all potential life was locked away as a result. Can you imagine? What a thing to steal! Now, will you show me another face?"

"Yes. Mine!" Spike cried out, jumping up to join Pinkie.

The chimera smirked down at the both. Its tail followed Rainbow Dash and Pinkie looked rattled from the incessant bleating. Spike felt like his eardrums would break. But he knew that he needed to act. With the boss bearing down on them, he used a flash spell to blind the boss.

All three heads roared and the dragon's maw opened to spit a fireball right at Rainbow Dash. The rogue cried out and barely dodged the attack, rubbing her eyes. Spike and Pinkie were both temporarily blinded, but the last two members were not so inhibited.

Discord rounded the corner and shot his harpoons. They sailed away from each other, spreading out a lightning net that fell across the boss. It shrieked in pain and was pinned down. Big Mac bellowed and charged forward, plunging his sword down to finish off the creature. His blade sunk into its flesh, but there was a blast of pure energy that shot Big Mac and his sword back. The chimera instantly healed and the net broke.

"I have sat atop pure life and energy for a long time, young travelers. I have taken that into myself. Can you defeat the life of thousands of years!?"

Ball bearing fell down around the chimera and exploded, obscuring its vision once again. Pinkie beat on her drums and once again summoned a ball of energy that exploded into a beam of destructive force. It glanced off the boss' shining body.

The monster's three heads chuckled before it attacked again, this time letting loose a roar that threw all of the adventurers back into the walls. Even Rainbow Dash got pancaked against the ceiling. The dragon took another shot, which she only just dodged, singing her wings. Growling in her throat, she was forced to make a landing.

Discord was thrown back into the stairway, while the other three slammed into the wall, unable to move. The chimera leaped for them; two mouths opened wide to devour them. Spike just got up a shield in time to stall the boss and let them peel their bodies off the wall. The chimera casually swiped at the barrier, shattering it. It chuckled about feeble incantations.

"The magic of the ancients is what sealed me away, and only that power can stop me now!"

Big Mac used his magic to propel Spike away from dangerous claws. Pinkie bounced up on the chimera and used a bag to blind the dragon head. It whipped around frantically, trying to get her. The beast shrugged its wings, dislodging her.

An arrow hit the monster and exploded. Discord came rushing in, firing arrow after arrow. The tail reared and shot a fireball at him. The archer expertly tucked and rolled to the side. But he kept up the barrage, unleashing exploding arrows at the boss' forefeet. The great chimera was steadily driven back, shielding its eyes.

Though it regenerated quickly after taking damage, the monster clearly did not like the pain or nuisance of getting injured. It quickly crawled behind the massive glowing orb to get out of the way.

"Everybody get back into the stairwell, quick!" Discord shouted.

"That won't save you!" the voices screamed from behind their cover. "You are locked down here until you can defeat me! That is your only way out! The wardens wanted to make sure that I couldn't get out on those conditions but should anyone open the door and try to let me out, there were traps to keep me in here. You will face your doom by my fire, teeth or your own starvation!"

"He's a regular chatterbox," Discord laughed, as he drew his string back.

A powerful arrow of elemental energies formed on his bow. It was a raging storm of destruction and strain of summoning such a powerful arrow tore at Discord. His hands were flayed open and flames scorched his body. He was rattled to his very bones, but his target was large enough.

"Suck on this you son of a-"

He loosed the arrow and it hit the receptacle, shattering it. There was a blast of life and energy in the form of a blue pillar. It tore at the entire dungeon, tearing it apart. The walls crumbled and all the upper levels collapsed. The orb disintegrated and a blast of wind carried both Discord and the chimera up in the air. Soon it tore the others along after them. They screamed in panic. All but Discord.

He watched with grim satisfaction as the chimera was taken howling up the grate. The prison bars were blasted into dust and the ruins were bowled over by pure energy. All six occupants in the oubliette were blasted into the sky, their wounds entirely healed.

Life washed over the once amazing city of Aagloo, and spontaneously vegetation began growing. It was like nature was hurrying to make up for lost time and the ruins were reclaimed by moss, grass, and trees. The monsters and zombies cried out with fear as they were quickly overtaken by the sudden growth and soon became fixtures in the new forest that grew around the deep pit.

Still shouting for their lives, the party crashed through the canopy of trees and fell onto the soft, long grass below. The chimera landed in a heal not too far from them. It got shakily to its feet, cursing them.

"How could you do this? My powers! You've-"

But as the chimera stalked towards them, it aged rapidly and soon decayed into dust. Even its bones crumbled away until all that was left in the grass was a tiny, black figurine.

"What just happened?" Pinkie asked, her eyes still spinning.

Discord laughed as he got up. "That blabbermouth was so fixated on having a conversation that he let some crucial information slip, and it wasn't too big a leap in logic to make to realize that he had sustained himself on borrowed time and life. By destroying that orb I could release all the powers the boos relied on and make time speed up! The Ruins of Aagloo will never again bother another party!"

"What about the loot?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's probably back down in the oubliette, or maybe its scattered across this new forest. In any case, it would take some time to find it all, but we have our prize!" Discord said happily as he bent to pick up their trophy.

Just then, a shadowy hand reached out and snatched it. Discord's eyes snapped up and he saw a figure cloaked in darkness with shining red eyes. It glowered at him and spoke in a soft voice, "Thank you for retrieving this for me!"

Without another word it raced into the depths of the woods.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Into the Tunnel

"Quick! After him!" Spike shouted, swinging onto Big Mac's back as he barreled by.

Rainbow Dash made like a shot, but a haze of darkness went up and she couldn't see where she was going. She crashed noisily into a tree. Spike used an incantation to dispel the darkness, but the figure had already moved on.

Discord pointed, "Over there!"

The thief cackled maniacally as he made off with their prize.

"Is this the thieving apprentice the chimera talked about?" Pinkie asked as she ran to keep up with Big Mac.

"Maybe," he growled.

"We've just got to catch him," Discord said. "But he's weaving so well that I cannot get a clear shot!"

Indeed, the mysterious figure bobbed and weaved expertly through the sudden, magical growth. The party kept on his heels as best as they could. He kept using spells to impede them if they drew to close and he had a knack for finding ruins that still stood to dodge behind.

"Why is this happening to us now?" Spike muttered. "We almost made it! This can't be another one of the Gazer's minions, could it?"

He concentrated to try and make out the being as it sprinted away. It was hunched and ran with a bipedal gait. Its darkness acted more like a cloak than as part of its own body. There were things like curved spines that protruded from it. It ran with more grace and speed than its shape would have indicated.

Discord tried to fire off another shot, but his arrow got lodged in a tree. He growled and began firing exploding arrows. He and Big Mac carved a way through the forest using sword and eruption magic, but the thief remained as always one step ahead. It finally arrived at the mouth of a cavernous entrance into the old city's underbelly. It stopped, waved at them, and then leaped inside.

"Ugh! It's so dark down there, you can't see a thing," Rainbow Dash said once she arrived at the lip of the cave. "He could sneak right past us and we'd never see a thing!"

Spike shot a lighting spell into the cavern and illuminated a curved path down into the earth. But it was shallower than he had anticipated. In fact, the cavern dropped barely a story before curving to run parallel with the world above. And it was pretty wide, too.

"Ha! Now he can't escape!" Dash exclaimed.

Pinkie began playing a marching tune. The boys shrugged but decided to lead the way into the cave. In order to complete their quest and get out of the game. They needed to find the thief and get back to the Gazer. The crawl was slow at first as they got used to the rocky terrain inside the cave, but they took heart as they observed that were no other tunnels that broke off from or converged with their own.

They quickened their pace, determined to catch the thief. And just up ahead was a dim light. It got larger and brighter as they approached.

"What do you think that is?" Big Mac asked.

"Trouble," Discord answered cryptically. "Better be prepared for whatever happens next."

But how could they?

[BE READY FOR WEIRDNESS! IF YOU WANT CLARIFICATIONS, READ THE VILLAINOUS VIGILANTES!]

What followed was a series of events that made no sense, even in the context of an Ogres and Oubliettes game. First, they found themselves walking into a completely new forest. The air smelled old and full of magic. There was no sign of the thief but a faint trail of light footprints. The rogue and archer used their skills to track where they led.

These footprints led them to clash with a group that called themselves the Villainous Vigilantes. A truly strange group of mostly villains, comprised of a massive dragon named Darkstalker, who looked like the night come to life and had a pouch strapped around his neck with the head of one mercenary named Deadpool. There was also floating, tophatted triangle named Bill Cipher, who seemed to know Discord and the Lord of Chaos even knew something of him.

"Why am I not surprised by this?" Rainbow Dash asked out loud.

And three beings called humans. One was a teenager, who merely mumbled his name, a murderer named Ricardo Revolver, and a man with spikes driven through his eyes and spoke in a grinding voice. His name was Huon. They were all after another member of their group, a being called Sosuke Aizen, who had betrayed them.

"With this company, who can blame him?" Discord snickered to the others.

The two parties did not know what to make of each other, but somehow they came to an accord and made their journey together, seeing as how their paths seemed bound in the same direction. They crossed the length of what happened to be a massive board game made for people too unimaginative or boring to play actual Dungeons and Dragons.

"What's that?" Spike asked, interested.

"It's a game similar to your own super nerdy and wish-fulfillment fantasy game, Ogres and Omelets," Bill replied, sounding annoyed at the question.

"Oubliettes," Spike corrected him. The triangle thing drifted off, it's eye telling the young dragon that he was thoroughly uninterested.

Though they joined forces, they still kept to themselves. Rainbow Dash and Big Mac both made arguments that they should all split up and try to find the thief, while Discord and Pinkie Pie said that it would be better to stick with the Vigilantes.

"They look like they could use our help!" Pinkie said.

Discord nodded and added, "Plus, we can let these obvious DPS sponges take all the hitting when it finally comes to a fight!"

The deciding vote fell to Spike. The small wizard finally went with his gut and the thought of what Twilight would do in this situation. He gave his vote to stay with the Villainous Vigilantes. As a result, they ended up having some good conversation with the Vigilantes. As a result, they were able to see that this strange collection of villains was on the road to some kind of redemption, thought it was beyond the small party.

Eventually, they made their way deeper into the game and found themselves traveling onto a very real hell-scape. That was were they found their thief and he was beside many, many powerful entities. For one, there was the traitor Aizen, another humanoid being, though he seemed very different. Two dimensional, like a cartoon. But he was not the only weird thing.

There were massive ships and monsters that cleaved opened the burning sky and armies descended from the rifts, filling the land. Forces clashed and the surrounding castles, mountains, cliffs and plains were shattered under the sheer weight of unrelenting power. It was a magic that bent reality and twisted stories to the center of a gravitational well of Will and Presence. No less than three beings walked this battlefield like gods.

Spike and his friends might have been no more than ants to them.

A Guardian.

A Tscheapwhetzar.

And an Abomination.

But for the party, what really counted was the thief they finally cornered on the battlefield. He cackled and grew in size. His body bubbled and bulged to form a Black Ogre. Pinkie squealed and exclaimed that they were going up against one of the most powerful creatures in the entire game. Spike, Big Mac and Discord didn't need to be told.

It was a wicked fight and the ogre taunted them with riddles. "You have no idea who the real villain is!" "Whether you win or lose, I win!" "Forgers of keys, you have crafted your own doom!"

It took all their reserves to finally defeat the ogre and bring him down. They quickly retrieved the figurine of the chimera before anyone else could snatch it from them. Then they were left with a heavy question. Should they run and take their prize to finally escape this game? Or were they going to join the Vigilantes and bring an end to their own quest?

They stood for friendship. It was the greatest magic. And they could not turn their backs on people they now knew, especially those who were dying. The party charged in and helped the Villainous Vigilantes win their fights and find freedom.

It was after Aizen finally fell and Darkstalker redeemed himself that a cloaked figure descended from the burning skies. He wore a mask in the form of a grinning skull. He strode up to the Vigilantes and congratulated them, but he also turned to the party and thanked them. He shook hands with Spike. The dragon flinched at the pinch of static electricity between them.

"Well done! Nobody is going to believe that characters made to teach lessons to little girls could stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Sosuke Aizen and Shadows! But you did magnificently. Please, allow me to help you all home."

With that, he tore an opening in the sky. It led them right back to the forest that grew atop Aagloo. Pinkie asked, "Couldn't you just send us back to Ponyville?"

"And end a perfectly fine story?" the masked man laughed. "Not at all! You are well enough equipped to defeat whatever forces placed you here. I don't want to take that victory away from you. Now, hop to! I don't want the shiny bucket back there to get in the way and ruin this moment."

He thumbed over his shoulder at a magnificent figure descending from the sky, garbed in white armor and a cape. The party stood in awe, unable to move. The world suddenly lurched and they fell through the rift and appeared back into the forest, right back at the lip of the cave.

[END THE STRANGENESS, AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED FANFIC!]

"Does anyone have any clue as to what in the name of Equestria just happened?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "Discord! Any thoughts?"

"Um… I think that the author had an idea for a gran crossover, that was semi-well executed, but is really nothing more than a prelude to the greatest and most daunting crossover in all of fan fiction history. This was nothing more than a reminder of what is really going on out there and that we are only players in a much grander game."

"And… What does that mean?" Spike prompted.

Discord shrugged and replied, "Honestly, I chalk it up to laziness, but I don't think we should forget what we just witnessed back there. It makes no sense. At least not yet."

"Woah! So cryptic," Pinkie said.

"Well, I'm going to leave all that behind!" Dash commented.

"Yup!"

"I agree," Spike said, scratching his hand. "This just felt like a distraction and honestly I kind of want to forget it. The masked guy was right. We have something else to do. We still need to defeat the Gazer!"

"Huzzah!" the others cheered.

"We have all four figurines. We can finally go up and beat that pompous collection of eyeballs," Discord said smugly.

"Oh yeah!" Pinkie shouted. "Now let's get planning!"

"Huzzah?" Rainbow Dash said skeptically.

"You cannot do this to me!" the Squizzard screamed. "My princess, plea- UGH!"

Rarity tightened the ropes and chains around the Squizzard. Her horn blazed as she irritably made sure that the tyrant was secured in his bonds. She gave an sharp huff and turned her back on the Squizzard, leaving him on the balcony of his second castle.

"But you called me! My agent promised me that you were going to-"

"Going to finally become _your_ princess," Starlight scoffed. "You have to be a real two-dimensional villain to believe that something like that would ever work! If that is your only ambition, you don't deserve to win. Take it from a reformed villain."

"You sound awfully smug when saying that," Twilight said, worried.

"Ha! Sometimes it just feels good to monologue," Starlight said with a tired smirk.

"You really think that I'm a two-dimensional villain?" The Squizzard wailed.

"Alright, I've had enough of your yammerin'" Applejack said, bucking the Squizzard right off the balcony.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH! I WILL BE BAAAaaaaaaaack!"

The Squizzard and his annoying voice disappeared swiftly. The friends all took a collective breath and sigh of relief.

"Sorry about putting you through that, Rarity?" Starlight apologized.

"It's quite alright, dearie. As you said, it was our best bet to become part of the story, and it looks like it worked. The guards let us in and everything! Not to mention us actually entering this game world. It's way more niche and simplistic than I thought it would."

"I think all of the cutout stuff just lasts around this kingdom, Beyond these borders it starts looking and feeling way more real, trust me," Starlight said.

"So where to next?" Applejack asked.

Twilight smirked. "We now use some magic and Rarity to win over the guards. Then we start sending out messages. We can't move autonomously from our position without somehow entering the story of Spike and others. I guess we were allowed to do this because it fits into a side quest, at least that is what the manual says."

She held up a large and dogeared book that Spike had been using. She pointed with her hoof and said, "It's all here. I have to admit, the makers of this game went way deeper than I thought. They make room for all kinds of new lore, special rules magic, and other things to get put in here. it's a game that is supposed to fit any kind of player and make them feel wanted!"

"Sounds like you actually want to play," Fluttershy said knowingly.

The princess tried to brush off the comment and said, "It's not like I would want to play! I am way too busy, and this is such a time-consuming game when I could be living in the real world and experiencing all that it has to offer!"

"I agree," Applejack said with a sharp nod. "Best get to fooling those guards so we can recruit them to finding Big Mac and the others!"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Final Preparations

Drawing out their plans on the back of the Gazer's map, Spike explained, "Okay, so we know that the Squizzard's palace, or rather his main palace, has just this one entrance. I'm sure the Gazer-"

"Hold up! How many palaces does the Squizzard have?" Pinkie asked.

"Uh, five. Why do you ask?"

"Why would the Squizzard have so many?" she demanded.

"Um… Because he is the Squizzard and is really powerful?"

"Hmm, it sounds like you were trying to justify having him being a recurring villain after we kick his butt at least once. He can just escape to another castle and then set up his operations again!"

"Yeah, but right now we need to focus on," Spike began saying.

"Wait! After everything that we have seen and explored, you want to just go back to fighting the Squizzard all over again?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "Come on man! That sounds a little lame! I mean, you can still use him as a villain, but after all of this, there is so much more of this world for us to see! So many more ponies and other creatures to rescue! More dungeons to find and dive into!"

"They make a fair point," Discord said to him.

"Yup!"

"Alright! We can explore more of this world once we have defeated the Gazer! Can we get back to the planning, please?" Spike said, exasperated.

"Sure!" Pinkie said sweetly.

"At least promise me that you can still deliver high quality adventures, Spike. I know you can do it man!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Yup!"

"Fine, I'll do my best," Spike finally replied with a smile.

The group smiled at each other before Discord coughed into his fist. "Don't we have a plan to make? I'm pretty certain we've already addressed this touching moment at least twice on our quest so far."

"Way to go," Big Mac muttered with a glare at the archer.

"Discord's right; we need to get to work," Spike said, getting to work on his drawing. "The Squizzard's main palace was made to encourage us to have an epic battle at the front gates. It would be rewarding to defeat to the Squizzard's guards and overcome his traps and schemes. That's all part of what makes for a good boss fight. However, there was the possibility that we wouldn't make it through the front doors.

"This led me to design the castle with a kind of backdoor in. But it is very far down. The cliff that the palace is built on goes pretty far down, and that is why no one would immediately guess that there is a hidden door. We just need to break in through there and climb up the stairwell and different basements into the cave proper."

"But why would we want to do that?" Pinkie asked. "The Gazer won't let us out of the game until we deliver the four figurines!"

"Yeah, but we know that we won't keep his word," Rainbow Dash huffed. "I get what you're coming from Spike. We sneak in and catch the Gazer off guard and beat him up! Then we find out from him how we get out!"

"Well…"

Big Mac shook his head. "If we were going to do that, we might as well go through the front door."

"But that would not catch the Gazer off balance and giving us the upper hoof," the rogue protested.

"No! We want to give the Gazer the figurines," Spike said loudly.

"Surely all those earlier talks of friendship are finally getting to you and making you act silly," Discord sighed with a sly grin adorning his face. "We obviously don't want to give the Gazer our four treasures! That would put us at his mercy!"

"That's what I want," Spike retorted, but then he grinned. "Or, that is what I want the Gazer to think. You see, I am pretty certain that the Gazer won't just let us go. We have to give him the figurines, because I bet he won't let us know how to escape this game world, even if we beat him within an inch of his life. Therefore, we need to hand them over and see if he goes through on his word.

"But if he doesn't, he will think that he has beaten us and we can probably get the Gazer to monologue and give up the details on how we break out. And that is when we attack the Gazer from all directions, because by sneaking in, we can rig the castle to fight along with us!"

The others looked impressed, but still a little confused. Spike explained that if they stocked up on enough supplies before entering the castle, they could set up traps all over the place and overwhelm the Gazer with tricks. He wouldn't be able to deflect all of their attacks and traps, because his eyes focus too much on the magical aspects of battle. An OP wizard-type of a villain, much like Spike himself, but lacking where it mattered in terms of defense and health.

"The Gazer seems so formidable because he has so many powers, but up close he's actually super weak. So we remove his advantages of height and setting. We force the Gazer to our level and then Big Mac and Rainbow Dash can deal super amounts of damage while the rest of us draw his full attention and get him to go into our traps!"

"It seems a little complicated," Big Mac worried.

"Yeah, how can we do that and not get caught?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Spike smirked and lifted up his cloak. "We haven't used these much yet, but they will make us nearly invisible! We just need to take our time and be patient. And then we will have the perfect scenario to get out of the game whether or not the Gazer lets us leave!"

"You know, that is cheeky is enough that it just might work!" Discord said. "I think we should go along with it!"

"I think I can along with it, too," Pinkie replied simply.

Big Mac and Rainbow Dash shared a glance before sighing and both agreeing to go along with Spike's plan. With Spike's recreation of the winding stairway up the palace and details about the secret door, the party got themselves together and made their way to a small village on the way back to the palace. It was their only chance to get some supplies to help them assemble their traps.

However, once they arrived at the town, they found a surprise waiting for them. After they had cleared out the small general store of all its rope, wax, arrows, and even a small package of fireworks, a visitor came. The ponies all cried out with fright and scampered away into their homes and locked their doors and windows. A bone warrior trotted down the street.

"Well, it looks like the Squizzard has marshalled his forces again," Discord said, pulling out his bow.

"After everything else we've done, this feels like a joke!" Rainbow Dash laughed.

Pinkie pointed at the warrior. "Hey look! What does it have in its mouth?"

Spike squinted his eyes and saw that there was in indeed a letter in its mouth. The party inched close to the warrior who spat the letter at their feet. It didn't say another word. Discord had his arrow trained on the warrior as Spike knelt to get it. Once he opened it, his eyebrows flew up into his hat.

"Well, scratch all of our preparation," he said numbly.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Reunion

The bone warriors parted, and the double doors creaked inwards, opening to the party. Spike and his friends stood on the threshold of the Squizzard's third castle. This one was much more opulent and architecturally impossible than the others. A blast of cold air washed over them.

"Are you sure this is not a trap?" Discord asked.

Spike blushed a little and answered, "Yeah. There is no way that the Squizzard would use those kinds of words when addressing me."

"I would have," Discord scoffed.

The little dragon gave a sharp nod. "Yeah, but this is not you as the game master. I think we can trust this."

"Even though it's a side quest, it sounds like the best quest!" Pinkie sang.

The party carefully topped in. The entrance hall was completely devoid of another soul, alive or undead. The only bone warriors were the ones at the door. As they walked in, lights along the walls blazed to life, ignited through a magical means. Spike and the others felt their eyes drawn up a wide staircase where five unexpected figures stood.

"Twilight!?" Spike shouted.

"Fluttershy!" Discord exclaimed happily.

"Applejack?" Big Mac said in awe.

"Starlight! You're back!" Pinkie screamed, utterly relieved for her friend's safety.

"Rarity, how on earth did they get you into this game?" Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

"Well darling, I can tell you that I really took little pleasure in crunching all those numbers to design this character, but designing this dress was simply divine!"

Rarity sported a flowing dress of deep violet and hemmed with pearls and gems. She had all the trappings of diplomatic character. Utterly useless in a fight, but possessing enough charisma, intelligence and wisdom to make even a bard blush.

"Yeah, it took a lot longer to get back into this game than expected," Starlight explained, cantering down the stairs. "Whoever activated the spell designed it with brutal efficiency and ingenuity. We could only get in where it would fit the general story that is being played out. I could only go to that tavern where we met until we found another way in using your original quest idea, Spike. We had Rarity play the role of the princess and convince the Squizzard to meet!"

"Y-You did?" Spike stuutered, both pleased and absolutely petrified. He felt like such an idiot.

Rarity shook her head. "He was such a brute! No wonder you guys have to defend the princess from him. He positively wanted to get his tentacles wrapped all over me!"

"That's an image I did not need in my mind," Rainbow Dash muttered.

"Me neither," Applejack agreed, coming down to join Starlight. Like her brother, she had taken on the character of a knight, also dressed in rugged and spiked black armor, though she had forgone a unicorn's horn. It also appeared as if her weapon of choice was a lasso.

Big Mac blushed a little as his sister approached. "It's good to have back up," he said weakly.

"Yeah, we figured that you lot could use some help!" she said.

"Well, we actually had an entire plan revolving around sneaking into the castle and placing traps everywhere before fighting against the final boss, a Gazer," Discord told her.

"A Gazer!" twilight exclaimed, appearing right in the middle of the group with a magical poof. "They're one of the trickiest monsters in the entire game!"

"Aha! I am not the only one who studied the monster manual!" Pinkie said, as if this vindicated everything she had been doing up until this point. No one would have argued with her on that by now, anyway.

"Yes, but we think we know how to defeat him, but now that we have everyone here! This will be perfect!" Spike said quickly and excitedly. "We can form a party of ten players and overwhelm the Gazer!"

"Right! There are ten of us and each one of us can take out one of his eyes and defeat the final boss," Pinkie replied, catching on.

"Now that is a plan I can get behind!" Dash said, flaring her wings out.

"I don't rightly follow," Applejack said. "I thought the whole idea of us coming in here was so we could break them out. Twilight, didn't you have some kind of fancy recalling spell?"

"Yes, I do! Let me just get that underway," she said, her horn lighting up. Like Spike, she had selected to be a sorcerer. She wore robes that emulated her idol, Starswirl the Bearded. Though she had omitted the beard.

"I don't think it's going to work," Starlight began saying cautiously.

Discord nodded. "I quite agree with my friend here. Whoever is pulling the strings did block my chaos magic after all!"

"No, I got th-"

BOOM!

Twilight was thrown back in a magical explosion. She crashed into the staircase with a sickening crash. Her wings were crumpled and her eyes spinning like mad. She had paid a high price for trying to break the rules of the game and exit prematurely. Now that they had entered, they were subjected to the same expectations as the original party.

"Oh dear! Let me help!" Fluttershy said, flying down and touching her friend. There was an aura of white light and the Princess of Magic was instantly healed.

"Yes!" Discord said, pumping a fist. "I knew that she would be a cleric!"

Fluttershy was dressed in robes made of bright, green leaves. She had gold trim and cords that kept her clothing in place. The soft-spoken pegasus was every part the healer that the party had been missing out on their entire journey.

"It just seemed like the nicest class in the end, though I really, really wanted to be a summoner! Imagine being able to call all of little and big animal friends to me in an instant!"

"Yeah… I don't think that would be very helpful in a fight," Rainbow Dash muttered. "At least not with Fluttershy! She would avoid sending any of her summoned beasts into combat for fear of them getting hurt!"

"Which is precisely why I didn't go with that class? Feeling better Twilight?"

"Yes. thank you, Fluttershy."

"Oh, she is a heaven-send!"

"Discord, your crush is showing," Big Mac whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Hey if Spike can-"

Discord was cut off as Spike shoved the head of his staff into Discord's face and said overly loud, "Well! Since we are all here together, and stuck in this game until we can win, let's make a whole new strategy to try and escape!"

"All this planning," Rainbow Dash groaned.

"No, this time it will go over even better because we now have the balance of characters that we need for this kind of a fight," the dragon said eagerly.

He called for them all to enter a huddle. He explained to the others exactly how they had gotten trapped in the game by the Gazer taking over the Squizzard's first palace and forcing them to go on a quest. With their powers checked and with no way else out, the party had had to track down and fight four boss monsters and collect magical tokens or figurines from the. Spike happily left out the bizarre subplot of working villains from other worlds in an epic battle. Thankfully Pinky caught on with a look and didn't interrupt to try and fill them in. It would have been too awkward and out of place.

Next, he unfolded to them what their plans had been for defeating the Gazer. Originally, they were going to count on him being true to word and freeing them after giving him the black figurines. It was an idea that appalled Twilight and the others, but Spike allayed their fears by saying how they would use boobytraps to pin the Gazer down and deliver the knockout blow. But now that they had more pony power, they could come in charging.

He told them that this would put them all at pretty great risk, because the Gazer was smart and would prepare for them. But with ten party members, trying to sneak around the castle and set up traps was an untenable plan at the moment. So it would be better to rely on their combined strength and abilities to overwhelm the Gazer in one final battle.

"Like I said, I am wholly in favor of this plan!" Rainbow Dash declared.

"Of course you are, but this feels extremely foolhardy," Applejack cautioned.

"But charging in with at least some plan has worked for us most of the time," Big Mac countered. "And we have the numbers on our side now."

"I would feel a lot more comfortable with this idea if we still had those magical bracers you were talking about before," she said. "Any chance you've come across another pair since then?"

"No and it would take some time to craft them," Spike explained. 'If we took too long in returning, that Gazer might know that we are up to something shady. We suspect that he has kept an eye on us the entire time and is making sure that we don't deviate too much from the quest."

"Wouldn't this count as a deviation?" Twilight asked.

"Not really," Starlight said. "We are here together, aren't we? I think it is because the one who hijacked Spike's story is still using it as a template for supporting the spell. So long as we play according to that, we are all okay, though it is pretty incredible to think that there is a spell like that. It's _deviously_ crafted."

"that is a delicious word, darling, but when the word devious is used against us that makes me feel a little faint of heart," Rarity sighed. "What makes us even think that defeating this Gazer will be the end of it all and that we can return to Ponyville? It sounds like a leap in logic to me!"

"It's what the Gazer said," Pinkie chimed in. "And it would make sense. There are all kinds of stories where ponies have to play their way out of a game in order to return to their normal lives."

"Really? Name one," Dash challenged.

"Now is not the time for this," Applejack began saying, but she was quickly overridden by Pinkie.

"There's Manji-Gu! Where the young fillies get stuck playing a bord game that puts them through a magical, dangerous safari! And then there is Yes Game, Yes Life, where a brother and sister get called to another world to play in a series of games to see if they can become the new, benevolent rulers of this other world. Or the story Trot! When a game designer gets trapped in his own game and he has to play his way out! And-"

"Okay, I get it! There a lot of stories where people have to play their way out of a game!"

"You need to read ore than Daring Do!"

"I have a bunch of other books to read, Dash, if you want!"

"Twilight, I think we should be more focused on getting out of here!"

"GUYS!" Spike shouted. "It's great being back together and going through all of this banter, but the more time we spend bickering is more time that we give to the gazer to know that something is possibly up and for him to prepare against us!"

The others looked humbled and he continued, "We might not be able to craft magical items quickly, but we do have plenty of supplies for traps. We just need to alter our idea a little and make them so they are useable in the moment. Ten of us against his ten eyes is a great strategy, but Gazers rely on other methods to fight and defend themselves. Our numbers play to our advantage, but we have to make sure that we use everything in our arsenal!"

"Oh, I am ready to use everything in my arsenal," Pinkie said in a tone of voice so intense that the others suddenly got the heebie-jeebies.

"Well, I…" Twilight trailed off.

Starlight stepped in. "Twilight, we know that you like to have a plan, but I think we should rely on the veteran players in this game. From everything we have heard, they could take down this Gazer by themselves. I think we should listen to Spike and go along with his idea."

Twilight smiled down at her little assistant and friend. He looked so strange in that beard! But she had to agree with Starlight. This was the right call to make.

"Alright every pony, let's go and beat this Gazer! Spike, lead the way!"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Boss Battle: The Gazer

The now massive party carefully approached the Gazer's stronghold. At the bridge stood the two ogres from before, but they were now twisted and malformed, turned into truly horrid monsters to behold. They waved the adventurers near and bade them cross. An honor guard of bone warriors was ready to escort them across. They all a horrid, black eye painted across their foreheads.

"The Gazer is using a spell to control them," Spike whispered to the others. "He'll have a small army stolen from the Squizzard to help protect him!"

"Got it," Twilight said. "Be on your guard every pony!"

The interior of the palace felt wrong somehow. True, there were the walls all painted in black with a strange, purplish ooze coming from between the cracks in the stonework. And there were the creepy blue lights and flames that illuminated the castle. And there were all kinds of pictures that depicted gross scenes or torture and mutilation. But it was the oppressively cold atmosphere, as if someone had sucked all hope from the place.

Spike was glad that he had so many of his friends here to back him up. This battle with the Gazer was going to be a hard one. They were led to the hall where they had first encountered the floating sack of eyes. It was decorated like the rest of the castle, and the Gazer hovered opposite from them on the other side of the hall. He cackled with delight when he saw them enter.

"Wonderful! Wow! This goes beyond even my wildest expectations! Your friends managed to make it here and you even met up with them. That is most impressive! A feat of adventuring and storytelling that few game masters manage to achieve without pulling some dues ex machina or another!"

"Who wants to dance Dosey-Doe with a machine?" Applejack asked confused.

"It's a plot device meant to wrap up everything nicely when there is literally no other way to make a happy ending possible," the Gazer said in his terrible voice. "Now, stop there! And show me the figurines!"

"How do we know that you will let us free once we do?" Starlight challenged.

"You… I had thought I had managed to get rid of you, but I guess one minion wasn't enough. Well, my dear pony, my word is the best that you have in avoiding a terrible fate."

"For whatever that's worth," Applejack muttered.

"Yup!"

"Oh my! He's so much worse in person that what his picture made him out to ne," Fluttershy said with a shudder.

"What, no positive word for how we might be able to redeem him?" Discord asked flatly. "Not that I am complaining, but this feels so out of character for you, Fluttershy!"

"Th-This entire p-p-place f-feels wrong," she stammered with fright.

"Enough!" the Gazer snapped. "I can feel that you have my trinkets. No more stalling!"

Black lightning zapped the Sack of Belonging. Tongs of the black electricity then shot out and hit the four pedestals in the corners of the hall. The figurines appeared there.

Pinkie shouted crossly, "Hey! That goes against the rules! You aren't able to mess with the Sack of Belongings' content unless they are taken out because they exist on another plane of existence that can only be accessed through the opening!"

"Woah! Is that even possible?" Twilight asked, suddenly distracted by this fascinating magical tidbit.

"It's my game, my rules," The Gazer said smugly. "As you might have already deduced, I was the one who locked you all here and made the rules for how this game operates. And you all played wonderfully into the roles and goals I had set for all of you."

Spike felt a chill crawl up his spine as he felt that someone, or something else entered the hall. It was as if another Presence had slid into the room. He couldn't pinpoint where it came from, but he saw the immediate effect as the Gazer grew in size and all of his eyes blazed with magical powers.

"Keys. You are all such lovely forged keys. The insertion was such a tiny one, but it was enough to craft a lock with your own fantasy world, Spike. And then you and your friends became the keys. And I am the result of your horrible mistakes, and the demise of your pathetic wish fulfillment fantasies! Hahahaha!"

Starlight and rarity both placed a hoof on Spike's shoulders.

"None of this is your fault," Starlight insisted. "Whatever this monster is, it has been using you."

"There is nothing wrong in having fun and enjoying your fantasies with friends," Rarity maintained. "He is the one has corrupted something that was just meant to be fun!"

Spike bowed his head and mumbled, "Thanks you two."

"Ha! Friendship! It can be powerful, I guess, but against the powers that I now command, your oversized party is nothing!"

There was a terrible cracking sound the echoed around the entire hall. The group looked around and saw that the figurines were shattering and crumbling to dust. As they did, black, ethereal versions of each boss emerged to fill the rest of the hall. The Windigo, the cockatrice, the hydra, and the chimera. The hall _shifted_ and became an empty plane of existence with a black and reddish sky overhead. The team stood atop a bubbling disc of purple ooze. The Gazer had transported them to another realm, one where he held the sole advantage.

"Despite what five of you think, seeing hell and being in hell are two very different things," The Gazer laughed.

The ball of eyes reared back laughing. Each demonic eye crinkled with mirth at their plight. The four bosses floated through the dark sky, encircling the disc. The bone warriors readied themselves, their own swords and spears ringed with black fire. Murder was in their eyes.

"Enough of this! Let us beg-"

BANG!

The Gazer was cut off with the resounding thunder crack, followed by an immediate _splut_. Thick, creamy pie covered the monster's entire face and blinded his main, central eye. As he screamed in rage, confetti covered the party. They all turned to see a smirking Pinkie Pie next to makeshift party cannon and the Sack of Belongings on the oozing floor, open.

"That was what all your shopping trips were about!?" Spike shouted.

"Yup! And there's a lot more where that came from!" Pinkie yelled, firing the cannon again. A series of fireworks blasted into the dark sky and went off all around the Gazer. The monster tried to flee from the bright light and sparks that were blinding his other nine eyes. "Some pony throw all the traps we have into the cannon! We can use this to weaken him and bring him down!"

"On it," Fluttershy said resolutely.

The ethereal boss monsters roared and dove for the kill.

"Someone needs to put these guys back into the grave," Discord said smugly, summoning a lance of bright fire on his bow.

"We got this too!" Spike said as he spun to face the Windigo. Starlight turned to face the chimera, and Twilight stared down the cockatrice.

Three powerful spells went off and a magical lance exploded. The ethereal bosses still came in for the kill. A beam of petrifying magic escaped the red, nearly disembodied eyes of the cockatrice. At the last second, a lasso took it around one of its top spines. Applejack and Big Mac yanked hard on the rope and it fell sideways, blasting one half of the bone warriors, turning them to stone.

"They still have all their abilities?" Rainbow Dash yelled in frustration! "No fair! We have to take them out quick, or we're all goners!"

She proceeded to barrel into the remaining bone warriors, trying to shatter them. They slashed at her with their burning blades. She deployed her ball bearing, tripping up some of them. The explosions caused strange ripples to flow across the disc. But better yet, they sent the bone warriors flying. She bucked them right off the disc and careening into the infinite gloom.

The cockatrice screamed and tried to throw off Big Mac and Applejack. The brother charged with his adamantine sword and plunged it into one of the deadly eyes. It was immediately extinguished, and the creature went fuzzy for a moment. Applejack's lasso fell right through it. The sister cursed under her breath and reeled in the lasso to use it again.

Twilight was using her incredible magic to hold the hydra at bay, but one of the heads rose up higher than the others and dispelled her magic. It then countered with a lightning blast right at her. Discord swung around and launched his electric arrow right through the blast. Same as before it absorbed the incredible attack and rebounded it. The magical head conjured up a shield and protected itself. But Twilight too the opportunity to summon magic ropes that bound the mouths and heads of its compatriots together.

Spike leaped back as the Windigo slammed its front paws into the disc. Black, thorny vines erupted from the purple ooze and shot out to entangle the party members. All three magic users, the archer, the bard and the cleric were all wrapped up and squeezed they felt their vitality being drained from them. Strange figures rose up from the ick and began to take form.

"NOPE!" Big Mac yelled as he dashed in and swung in his blade in a whirlwind, severing the vines. His friends collapsed onto the strange floor, gasping for breath.

"Fluttershy, quickly, we need you to cast a Party-wide heal!" Spike cried out as loud as he could; he felt really weak after getting hit by those vines.

The Windigo howled and jumped in for the kill.

Applejack's lasso took it around the paw and Rainbow Dash zoomed in from the opposite direction, a rainbow streaking out behind her. She slammed with all her might into the Windigo and set it off its intended course. Applejack strained but managed to turn the entire boss into a massive melee weapon. She swung it right around into the cockatrice, nocking them both down and into the gloom.

The magical hydra broke Twilight's spell and the heads all snapped forward for the kill. The chimera appeared right behind Rainbow Dash and smacked her hard, sending her crashing back onto the disc. The remaining bone warriors charged to finish her off. Applejack raced to save her friend, but a fireball came between her and Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy spoke the magical words to heal her party and Spike cast up a shield. It rebuffed the heads but was shattered in the process. Big mac swung hard and severed one head entirely. He then realized with shock what he had just done.

"Oops."

As one faded away three more sprouted violently from the shorn neck and joined the fight. The Gazer managed to wipe away the cream and blinked back its sight. It began laughing in its deep, horrible voice.

"You should all by now realize how futile this fight is-"

SPLUT!

Another pie took him right in the eye and he fell back, cursing. Pinkie had throw this one and readied her party cannon. With the other monsters preoccupied, she could fire off all the traps and bring down the Gazer. Strong, goopy hooves and claws snagged her from behind and dragged her away from the party cannon.

Fluttershy screamed in terror. The strange shapes that had risen up from the ooze were replicas of herself and her friends. They were misshapen and not entirely formed, since the Windigo's attack had not taken full effect. But still, violet eye gleamed mercilessly back at her as they trooped forward.

She saw a copy of herself, bear down, cackling with a voice that most certainly did not belong to her. She cowered in fright next to the cannon. She was then showered with ooze. She dare not look up until she heard Rarity's voice.

"Come Fluttershy dear, cover me while I try to save Pinkie! And if that cannon is ready, you should use it on the Gazer while we still have the chance."

It was miracle that Fluttershy was able to respond and got up. She saw her friend standing there all elegantly and beautiful with her amazing gown. Her horn was alight as she sent small beams of energy into the bodies of the misshapen clones, blasting them apart. They were trying to pull Pinkie to the edge, so Rarity had her work cut out.

Fluttershy glanced to the sides and saw the others fighting with the chimera and the hydra. They were all so engrossed in their fights that she was left entirely alone. Her lip trembled as she turned around as saw the Gazer drifting off. He would soon be out of range. Her mind then sharpened with focus.

This was the one who had trapped her friends in this game world. And it was he who was now trying to hurt them all! And he was completely unrepentant about it! She would have to teach him a lesson. She took aim with the cannon and fired.

All the traps that she and Pinkie had packed in erupted in maelstrom of grapeshot. Magicked rocks, ropes, and locks all flew at the Gazer. There was a series of explosions and then magical roped tied him up. Locks held him in place, and the stones weighed him down.

"GAAAAAAAH!" The Gazer fell hard into the ooze.

Taking such a violent action kicked in part of Fluttershy's backstory. Something that she had hoped she wouldn't have to use, because it was dangerous. But when she and the other girls had been planning out their characters and discussing what might be in this game, she took a chance…

A violent feeling welled up in her stomach and she collapsed to the floor, heaving.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy!" Pinkie wailed. She managed to loosed her drums and began playing them.

Given her position, it was not enough to conjure up the explosive ball of energy, but it sent powerful vibrations through the clones, weakening the structure. They lost their hold of her and she fell with a splat onto the floor. Rarity kept up the attack, trying to make sure her friend was safe.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was forced to use every trick in acrobatic arsenal to avoid getting hit with any cursed blades from the remaining bone warriors. She didn't know caused their weapons to be ringed with black flames, but she knew that she most definitely did not want to get so much as a scratch from any of them.

The chimera pounced and tried to bat at her, while the dragon's head continued firing off fireballs at Applejack to keep her at bay. Dash threw a knife at the chimera's face. It clattered off its strange body and fell harmlessly to the oozing ground. Applejack used her lasso to take a hold of the dragon's neck. The tail flailed about and took the Earth Pony for a ride. She yeehawed as she zipped through the air and finally let go to fall behind the lion and goat heads. She delivered two swift kicks, one to each head.

The boss monster tipped forward and fell on top of the bone warriors. Rainbow Dash just managed to get out of the way. Her friend smiled down at her.

"How did you guys ever manage without me?"

"The last four time we fought these guys one at a time!" the rogue protested. "Woah! Applejack! Look out!"

The chimera's body burst into black flames. The tongs of fire nearly took Applejack, but she raced back up the tail and whipped her lasso off the dragon. The monster roared with fury and stood up, becoming a chimera-shaped black flame.

"Oh boy, what do we do now?" Rainbow Dash muttered.

At the same time, the rest of the party was desperately fending off the hydra's advances. With Big Mac's mistake two more magical heads had joined the fight. It took everything from Spike, Twilight and Starlight to keep them at bay. It was spell after spell, and the small wizard knew that if they weren't careful, they could burn through all of their good spells and energy before they even completed the fight.

He chanced a glance behind himself and saw what had become of the chimera, but he thankfully recognized the magical flames. They were a corrupting flame that could be banished with purifying light. Something that Fluttershy could provide. But the normally kind pegasus pony was curled up and out of the fight.

"Fluttershy! We need you to cast some divine light on that chimera! Or it will defeat us all with a single touch!"

"Ugh… I can't… I feel so weak and in pain…"

Without taking his eyes off the enemy, Discord shouted, "You can do Fluttershy! We all believe in you! You are the only one who can do this! As the cleric, you help carry the party!"

Rarity had finally defeated the ooze clones, and she and Pinkie rushed back to pull their friend up. Fluttershy looked grey and about ready to barf, but she focused her swirling eyes on the chimera and reached for her magic.

"Divine light," she mumbled.

From her hoof burst a beam of purifying, divine light. The moment it touched the chimera, it blasted a hole right through its body. The beast did not recover. Rarity and Pinkie guided her hood to take out the three heads. With that, the flames disappeared in a flash and the chimera was no more.

"Well peel my apples and make me a pie, that was amazing!" Applejack exclaimed.

"The Gazer," Fluttershy said weakly.

The other ponies turned to see the final boss struggling against his boned. Each tentacle with an eye was bound up and all he could do was glare at them with his dirtied, massive eye. It began to glow violet and Fluttershy and Rarity both felt their magic fail them. But Applejack and Rainbow Dash did not miss the opportunity and feel on the boss, beating him up.

"Let's throw him over the side! That should finish him!" Rainbow Dash snarled.

Together, they bucked the Gazer right over the side. Cheering, they clopped their hooves together. They had just bested the final boss!

There was a strangled howl and the Windigo leaped up onto the disc. The Gazer was in its mouth. The cockatrice followed, flying through the air. Both of its eyes were perfectly operational once again. The Windigo ground its teeth together and broke the Gazer's bonds, freeing him. He sped away from the ethereal mouth and glared down angrily at the adventurers. They had certainly been more of a nuisance than he had anticipated. He would give them that. And they had even bested one of his slaves.

"You will all pay for this!" he screeched.

One eye reached out and gazed at the party cannon, setting it ablaze. Another gazed down at Rainbow Dash. Her eyes glazed over and her mouth slid open somewhat. Applejack began asking, "Uh, Dash, are you alright?" Rainbow Dash slugged her friend in the mouth.

"He's controlling Dash with his eye of controlling!" Pinkie yelled.

"His what?" Applejack asked furiously.

"Every single one of his eyes can perform a special and powerful spell! Watch out!"

The cockatrice swung around to shoot its petrifying beam right at the rest of the beleaguered party. But it was then that Twilight came in clutch with a brilliant idea. It was something that she thought up of after her last encounter with these foul beasties. She summoned a mirror and reflected the powerful beam right the hydra. The many headed monster howled in surprise as it began turning to stone. Twilight's mirror broke and Starlight tackled her out of the way.

Spike used a levitating spell on Big Mac. He nodded to his friend who gave a sharp nod back. The knight was ready to redeem himself after his blunder with the hydra. Spike hurled his friend in a spiral at the cockatrice, aiming for its gaping mouth. The greedy monster happily snapped down on Big Mac, but not before Spike used on last spell. An enlarging spell.

The cockatrice's eyes opened with shock and pain. Big Mac's sword erupted out the back of the monster's skull and it spun. The cockatrice boss fell apart as if it were an apple being peeled into oblivion. A massive Big Mac and his adamantine sword flew out of the shredded backside and landed on the disc with a crash. Waves of ooze crashed over the party.

However, they now cheered. The chimera had been healed to death, the cockatrice had been torn apart, and the hydra was now stone. But their celebrations were short-lived as the Windigo slammed its paws into the ground once more. The vines came and entangled the entire party this time. The draining effects of its attack washed over them, enfeebling them all. Clones were once more formed from the ooze.

Pinkie still kept her wits about her and used the drums to play the right song to embolden her teammates, shouting at them to break free. The one who heeded her first was not the player anyone expected. Fluttershy broke free, but she was not herself anymore. She had become Flutterbat.

The turned cleric snapped the vines into splinter with a powerful unfurling of her wings. She hissed and leaped onto the Windigo's face. She sank her fangs into the beast and began draining its life away. It went from ethereal and dark to light pale and began losing form.

"Deal with her," the Gazer instructed.

Rainbow Dash shot out and plunged a knife deep into Flutterbat's side. They both tumbled with a scream into the ooze. But Flutterbat's quick attack had weakened the effects of the Windigo's spell. Spike was able to slip free, and though he felt drained he cast a spell of small lights around the Gazer, blinding his eyes and causing him to blink. Rainbow Dash was freed of the dominance spell.

"Oh no! What have I done?"

"Don't worry about that! Go to the Sack of Belongings; there are some healing potions there! Use them on her," Pinkie said desperately as she pulled out all the stops for her one-pony band. As the bard, this is where she came in to try and rescue everything.

She took a deep breath and then laid into the music. This was not one of her normal peppy tunes, or even some kind of frantic music. It was a noble battle song that she played. Until they got their cleric back into play, they were all weak, but her teammates could be envigored to keep fighting to the very last point of HP. That was what she could do for them.

The song began empowering her friends and they moved forward. Applejack was down before the Gazer, who was retreating from the light. He used his middle eye to dispel the globules of light and free his other eyes from being blinded. He blinked at Spike and _shifted_ right behind him.

"His warp eye!" Spike yelled before being heavily electrocuted.

Twilight spun to help her friend, but her magic was cut off by the gaze of the middle eye. Another eye raised up to cast its devastating spell, but an arrow hit it and the eye exploded. Gore splattered all over the ponies.

"I believe that is your incinerating eye done for," Discord gloated, drawing another arrow. It disappeared as the Gazer swept around to him.

There was another violent blast and a second eye erupted, spraying blood and flesh in every direction. The Gazer howled in frustration and pain before _shifting_ again and this time the Windigo appeared before them. It was slow and lethargic after getting drained by Flutterbat, but it still swept the part aside with its massive paws.

The sound of thunder echoed above and Rainbow Dash dropped like a meteor on top of the Windigo's head, drilling it into the floor. Flutterbat sped after her, fangs ready to bite into the pony who had stabbed her. Fleck of healing potion flew off her lips.

Pinkie directed her music to Flutterbat, changing her tune. The monster flopped right onto Rainbow Dash who pleaded with her friend to not suck her dry. However, Fluuterbat merely blinked and sniffed at Rainbow Dash before turning again on the Windigo and resumed to suck it dry.

"Wh-What was that!?"

"Charming animals," Pinkie replied, exhausted.

"You must all think yourselves really proud to have come so far," the Gazer snarled. "But I shall tear you apart as you fight yourselves! Gaaaaah-ouch!"

He was pulled back with a grizzly ripping sound. Applejack had stumbled back onto her feet and her lasso had taken another eye. "Not even kicks from Rainbow Dash can keep me down for long!" she said fiercely as she gave a massive tug.

The boss screamed with pain and all his eyes contracted as a third eye was torn right out of his body. Applejack then headbutted the floating monstrosity closer to her friends. Because the Windigo's vines had not taken hold of Rainbow Dash or Applejack they were free to attack. The rogue sped through the bodies of the misshapen clones, splattering their ooze everywhere.

"Awesome! Now we just need to take on the Gazer," Spike said fiercely, still feeling emboldened by Pinkie's song despite his exhaustion. "Spread out! He can't look at all of us at the same time. And he's down to seven eyes now!"

The Gazer glared at Spike, cancelling out his magic. He shifted Applejack with a blink and sent her careening right into a spell fired from Twilight. Another eye glanced over at Starlight and covered her in ice. Discord went slack jawed and dreamy eyed ad he turned and began firing shots at Rainbow Dash, forcing her to swerve away from the battle.

"I may not have the firepower that the other bosses have, but even three eyes down, I am more than enough for this!"

One eye snaked out and blinked at the petrified hydra. The stone began cracking and the statue started squirming. He was dispelling the very spell that had petrified the hydra! Big Mac crashed into the boss monster and tried to push the massive thing over the side. The Gazer laughed at his vain efforts.

Pinkie summoned a ball of energy and fired it at the Gazer. He turned towards he and nullified the spell's effects. This gave Spike enough time to whip to the side and shatter the ice around Starlight. She thanked him in a quivering voice, plums of frost rising with her breath.

The Windigo collapsed into nothing and Fluttebat charged the Gazer. The boss gave her a frightened look and the eye that had been used on the hydra blinked at her. She squeaked and crashed into the ooze, rapidly turning back into her normal self.

"She gave herself a curse. Foolish girl," the Gazer muttered. "Finish her off!"

Discord aimed an arrow right at her. The shot went wide as Big Mac turned to tackle him. The hyrda roared as it began breaking free of the stone.

"Ugh! This is not the kind of game I like to play," Applejack complained.

"I'm so sorry!" Twilight apologized. "His magic is not like anything I've seen before."

"We know that he still has his controlling eye, his teleporting eye, his dispelling eye, and the eye that cancels out all of his magic. Not to forget his ice eye, too," Spike said quickly. "He hasn't used his shocking eye or incinerating eye, which might mean that we've already blinded them."

"Like I would tell you," the Gazer sneered.

"Which means that the others could be his sleep eye, his gravitation eye, or his cease eye," Spike continued. "All of those can still be dangerous in this case."

"I think the hydra will soon require more of your attention," The Gazer laughed as one head belched a thick cloud of poisonous gas.

"Quick! Get Fluttershy up so she can heal us from the poison," Spike called to anyone who would listen

Rainbow Dash fell again out of the sky with the force of a falling mountain, determined to flatten the Gazer. One of his eyes snapped upwards and stopped her in midfall. As Rarity dove for Fluttershy, she was teleported right into Spike, knocking him down. Twilight began to use a spell and the Gazer turned to her, cancelling out her magic. Applejack fought her way back to her feet but the collapsed into a heap as another eye peered out at her.

"We're forcing him to use all of his powers!" Spike shouted. "He wants to pin us down for the hydra to finish us off!"

"Clever little dragon," the boss hissed.

"Exactly," Spike said with a grin. He cast a small spell to tear Rainbow Dashes pockets. All of her exploding ball bearing fell on top of the Gazer. They exploded and a cloud of ashen smoke enveloped the boss. He coughed and wheezed, moving out of the plume of smoke. But more importantly, he lost visual contact with the party. Discord returned to normal, as did the others.

Rarity again dashed for Fluttershy and shook her awake right as the poisonous gases fell. The hydra was nearly completely free, and all the heads were raining down attacks on the party. Twilight and Starlight tried to shield everyone from the downpour of devastation. Discord took wild aim and punctured a fourth eye on the Gazer.

Freed from the Gazer's ceasing eye, Rainbow Dash came boxing, hitting the central eye and making the boss reel backwards once again. She reattached her horseshoes and zapped the Gazer, discombobulating him. Spike rushed forward and cast his own fireball, further damaging the final boss.

Fluttershy was up once more and cast her highest curing spell, ridding the air of the poison and restoring massive health to the party. The Gazer shouted in frustration, but he was now on the ropes.

The hydra was not entirely free, its feet were still petrified. Applejack and Big Mac shared a look. They rushed to work together and tip the last ethereal boss over. With their impressive strengths combined, they toppled the roaring beast, sending it crashing right towards the Gazer. An eye snaked out and made the hydra lighter than air. It floated over the battlefield.

"He's going to drop it down on top of us and flatten us," Spike warned.

"Precisely!"

"Every creature in!" Twilight shouted.

The entire party dove for their friend as she used a teleportation spell. Spike threw himself into the middle of the Gazer's field of vision so he could not cancel out Twilight's spell. The hydra dropped with increased weight due to a manipulation of gravity. The disc nearly broke under the beast's fall. The party appeared in a burst of sparkles right on top of it. The Gazer was livid.

Discord shot off a normal arrow and punctured a fifth eye, the one capable of teleporting. The Gazer realized with sudden clarity just how much trouble he was in. He was down to half of his eyes and had lost most of his support. He blinked a wave of ice washed over the party.

Starlight was ready for him this time and she broke the ice. He canceled out her magic but was then blasted with numerous other spells. He was wounded all over and slumping towards the rippling ground.

"Now that it comes to it… I don't want to die," he said softly.

A massive sword took him right through the pupil as Big Mac delivered the killing blow. The large pony had rushed him right in a moment of self-doubt and distraction. It had cost him his life. The final boss gurgled, and foam spilled out of his crooked mouth.

"Fine," he frothed. "Be free."

There as an explosion of darkness that washed all over the party. For a moment they were all blinded.

The sun was nearly down, and the shadows were lengthened. Night was on the horizon and the first few stars were beginning to appear above Ponyville. The map room was still locked tightly shut. There was no one in the hallway. A black mist leaked out from underneath the doors and a Shadow pulled itself free.

It quickly crawled along the ground, seeking to escape the castle. Phase two of the mission was about to begin. It disappeared into the darkening twilight hours.

The party found themselves outside in the middle of a scorched ring. There was a bridge with two undead ogres guarding it. They looked at the party and roared, charging forward. However, the rest of the Squizzard's palace was nowhere to be seen. It had been entirely obliterated.

"Soooo, did we win?" Rainbow Dash asked, trying to keep her knees from shaking.

"Let's see," Discord mused. He snapped his fingers as the two ogres approached. They were immediately changed into shrubberies. "The answer is yes!"

"Then get us out of here!" Rarity pleaded.

Discord snapped his fingers again and they all reappeared in the map room. They collapsed into a heap, totally spent after that final battle. The doors swung open and a nice, cool breeze wafted into the room.

"You know Spike, I think we need to talk about your hobbies," Twilight weakly joked.

"Yeah, next time I need to read the label more closely," he admitted.

"And next time I think we should just keep guys' night between us guys," Discord whispered. "Trying to impress the girls requires too much effort!"

Spike sat up and then realized something. "Hey! We actually all managed to play together! That is what I wanted, though it didn't happen the way I expected. I was hoping that it would be more gradual, and um…"

"More enjoyable?" Pinkie prompted.

"Yeah, that," Spike replied, blushing.

"Well, that dress was quite lovely. If we could tone it down on the fighting, maybe?" Rarity asked.

Big Mac shook his head.

"What?" Rainbow Dash gasped. "But that's the best part!"

"It was fun working together, but we can do that outside of games like these," Applejack said. "However, take away the likeliness of death, and it could be entertaining for one good go around."

"Yup!"

"Like I said, next guys' night is just us," Discord maintained. The others laughed at that.

Finally, Twilight asked, "Spike, where are the things that you guys were using that might have caused this whole curse? It was unlike anything I have ever before seen!"

The little dragon hauled himself up to the table, but his new game master manual and game pieces were nowhere to be seen.

"I think that this is something that could wait until the morning," Starlight yawned. "How far could a book get on its own?"

"You'd be surprised," Discord muttered.

"I agree with Starlight, we should all get some sleep and then work this out in the morning."

The group finally agreed and Twilight summoned sleeping bags for all of them. But as Spike began nodding off (which did not take long for any of them!), he felt the oppressive nature of the curse game lift off him. They were free and the quest was done. They all slept well.

Spike and his friends never found the book. The ponies in the game shop could not remember what they had sold him. The receipt was missing, too. All traces of the curse left Ponyville. But they were felt far away, as something began stirring.

A power that sought something precious. Something that could be discovered out there in the wide lands of this world, or maybe even at the very heart of Equestria…

TO BE CONTINUED…


End file.
